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Tourists visiting Greece are quite scared and some of them come to the country with large reserves, mainly because of the pictures circulated by major television channels. I understand that the media want to sell their product and attract the viewers’ attention, but they focus on riots, violence and sex. This is momentary news; these are not permanent things. Nobody wants to present the beaches and nature. What is interesting is how a newly born politician hits his female colleague. They deal with homeless people and prostitution. There were homeless in Greece a few years ago too, but nobody paid attention. Their number may have really increased, but it is because many of them have preferred it themselves, others have lost their mind and have taken this path.

You said that in your opinion major media are to blame for the distorted notion the world has of Greece but the incidents we are talking about are broadcast by the Greek media first and then, by major foreign television channels and news agencies.

Yes, that is right but these pictures are distorted and they do not reflect the truth. This is what I am saying.

Let us go back to the change in the profile of tourists. Have you noticed a change in the type or origin of the tourists visiting Greece?

There has been some decline in the number of tourists from the United Kingdom in recent years. This year, there is a drop in the number of tourists from Germany. For us, these are traditional markets. However, there is an increase in the number of tourists from Russia not because they have suddenly started to like us but because the procedures for issuing travel documents to Greece have been simplified. There is a great love for Greece from Latin America, but the problem is expensive transport. I think it is time to pay more attention not only to traditional markets but also to new and more distant countries. Tourists will come from them, who may not be many in number but will be of higher quality and will spend much more.

What do you think has brought Greece to the current situation?

The reason is the ease of life in recent years. Our generation did not learn a lesson from the lives of our grandparents, who knew to live with less. They knew poverty and experienced one of the most unpleasant events in the history of a nation - civil war. The old generation was struggling to achieve democratic rights and our generation has been immersed in a fictional prosperity. It was based on credits, public as well as private ones. Those governing for long periods of time were telling stories about children, giving false hopes and promises only to be re-elected and credits have been accumulating. The moment of truth has come. We have no room for more manoeuvres. The future of our children is at a crossroads and it depends on us to take our destiny into our own hands. Let us remember Greece as it once was. I think we will recover faster than some suggest, if we learn a lesson from what has happened to us. We cannot always seek to blame others without seeking the fault in ourselves. The time when you could decide that someone else will do the job for you is over.

Let us finish positively. What would you tell a   man who has never visited Greece?

The fairy land, you may have seen in advertisements and photos, is real. This is Greece itself. People are hospitable and a warm reception is in the nature of every Greek. The Greeks have problems now, but they do not affect tourists. The negative information about Greece presented recently in the media is not objective. Come and see for yourself.