Greece’s Tourism Hurt by Continuous Taxi Strike

Greece’s Tourism Hurt by Continuous Taxi Strike

Athens, Greece — Major roads were blocked by numerous taxi drivers across the country of Greece Monday as a protest against reforms inspired from EU/IMF. The protest disrupted tourism at the peak of the summer season.

Taxi drivers are against the government’s plan of issuing new taxi licenses which will be an additional burden to all taxi drivers. The plan is part of Greece’s cash-strapped plan to revive the country’s ailing economy through liberalization of restricted and constrained business sectors.

Greece is already a debt-laden country according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU). In order for Greece to continue receiving assistance and bailout funds from the IMF and EU, Greece must totally remove restrictions impeding access to closed professions.

Protesters blocked Greece’s longest suspension bridge and also another major highway both located in the west. Taxi drivers have already been on strike for a couple of days currently on their second week.

Other taxi drivers blocked major roads hampering access to the country’s main airport and Crete, a resort island. Tourists walked half kilometer (500 meters) with their entire luggage to shift to other means of transport.

Protesters were also able to prevent 1,600 passengers from cruise ships to visit the famed site of Knossos in the island of Crete. Hotel owners and businessmen were already hurt by the strike and may resort to filing a lawsuit against all the taxi drivers who participated in the protest if the situation worsens.

Posted by James Fried on Tuesday August 02 2011, 3:41 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0