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Anastasia Balezdrova

At the height of summer, when the Greek coast is filled with visitors from around the world and the employed in the tourism sector hope the year to be better than the previous one, an ordinary dispute between young British tourists and Greek taxi drivers in Laganas on Zakynthos island ended in the most tragic way. The murder of a 19-year-old tourist from a taxi driver shocked the residents of the island not only because of the aggression of the attacker, but of the insignificant reason.

The quarrel began in the early hours after midnight when a group of young tourists went to a fast food restaurant located opposite the taxi stand. According to eyewitnesses, the youths were drunk and very provocative. When passing along the taxis some of them started to kick the tires of the cars. One of the drivers got out of his taxi and started arguing with them. The situation got out of all control, when some of the youths began to glow in his eyes with small lasers. The 21-year-old driver of the car took his pocketknife and began to poke the British tourists.

Eyewitnesses claim that the area resembled a "slaughterhouse". Some of the tourists ran down the street, others cried out in pain for help. When the "battle" was over, the 19-year-old tourist who was stabbed in the heart died. Two others were seriously injured but not life threatening. After the bloody assault, the taxi driver, who was involved in a similar scandal last year, hid. The police caught him the next morning and he confessed that he threw the knife into the sea from where divers got it.

According to residents of Laganas, "the situation is out of control and it was a matter of time before something tragic happens. All the signs were there for a long time. Consumption of large amounts of alcohol, scandals and fights happen every day. "

The murder of the 19-year-old tourist, who was the mascot of the football team of England for one day four years ago because of a photo with David Beckham, caused extensive comments in Western media. "Greece welcomes 15 million tourists every year, nearly a fifth of them British," said Reuters, while the British Guardian was more critical with the headline "Zakynthos is famous for the behavior of drunken young people from Britain. There have been murders of tourists on the island in recent years. "

Other resort areas in Greece also have similar problems with the brutal and challenging behaviour of drunken youths from England. Some, like the region of Faliraki in Rhodes managed to prevent such developments. GRReporter contacted the chairman of the family tourist sites in Faliraki Panagiotis Tokouzis who defined the problem and explained how they resolved it.

"If we are to put the problem in its real dimensions, we should say that it starts from the British holidaymakers themselves, which have no limit in alcohol consumption and come here with the intention to drink and entertain in a violent way. These are particular tourists, brought here by particular travel agencies, who come to Greece with this particular purpose.

We also experienced a period of almost 10 years, when we welcomed young tourists from Britain and witnessed events such as those in Zakynthos and elsewhere. We have no similar problems in Faliraki today. We changed the visitors who are from all over Europe and the UK but youth tourism is not our target any more. "

What broke the camel’s back?

The change came after a similar accident between two British holidaymakers at a restaurant. Both were drunk.  One of them stabbed the other and he lost his life subsequently.

This wild party, which the young British tourists like, had to end.

What did you do to achieve this result?

It was not difficult. When the travel agencies decided to cut a number of services, those type of tourists stopped coming in Faliraki. There was no need to do something specific.

The people employed in tourism on the island of Zakynthos said that the lack of police patrols has contributed to the tragic accident. Do you think checks that are more frequent are necessary?

I have been working in tourism for many years and I can tell you that the issue about the police presence not only here but in all resorts was raised when those particular travel agencies began to take this kind of tourists.

Our country has always been a safe destination and during all these years, we never needed police officers to supervise the visitors. I do not believe that a visitor needs supervision, nor would he or she feel better if surrounded by policemen. They need not only to feel safe, but to be safe actually.

The problem lies in how the agencies advertise their services to increase their sales in the places where they bring these customers. We have had visitors from many countries, but the "hooliganism" of the British holidaymakers after alcohol consumption is typical only for them. Not only patrolling, but even more specialized control of the security companies is necessary in these cases, because it is simply impossible to control these young people in other ways.