Last-minute tourist reservations for Greece plunge 30%

Last-minute tourist reservations for Greece have plunged by nearly a third since early last week as uncertainty piles up around the eurozone country, the Greek Tourism Confederation said Wednesday.

Since June 27, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a snap referendum that finally rejected the stringent terms of an international bailout for Greece, "there has been a drop in late bookings only, to the order of about 30 percent," the confederation's director, Alexander Lamnidis, told AFP.

He said such bookings account for around 20 percent of tourism travel to Greece.

The country, known for its sun-bleached islands scattered in transparent waters, is financially stretched after years of austerity. It implemented capital controls that closed its banks when the referendum was called and is widely seen to be on the brink of leaving the euro.

It was now urgent that Greece strikes a new bailout deal with its EU creditors, Lamnidis said.

"In case we have a deal within the week, we go on with business," he said.

"In case we do not, and we have one or two or three weeks more of this situation, we feel that we will start having some problems especially with supplies."

The capital controls are preventing Greek businesses from paying money abroad for goods, including meat.

"There are some fears -- no problems yet -- about food supplies and what would be happening within the next two or three weeks," he said.  

ATM withdrawals are limited to just 60 euros ($67) per day for Greek bank card holders. Foreign cards are not capped the same way, but several embassies have warned their citizens to bring enough cash for their trip as ATM money stocks could run out.

On the islands, "there are some problems now and then with cash, with cash machines," the tourist confederation director said.

He added that Greeks wanting to travel out of the country were also having to rethink their trips "because payments cannot be made abroad".

Greece's tourism sector is vital to the national economy, accounting for between 15 and 20 percent of gross domestic product.

Last year, a record 24 million tourists visited, spending 13.5 billion euros, according to the confederation, which this year had been hoping for the figure to go up, to 25 million visitors.