Greece Will Try to Lure U.S. Tourists

Greece plans to launch a campaign to win back American tourists who canceled vacations because of fears of guerrilla violence, the Greek National Tourist Organization said Wednesday.

Tourist industry sources said the number of Americans visiting Greece is expected to fall by as much as half this year because of the situation in Libya and security fears caused by two hijackings over Greece in 1985.

“Unjustified concern is being cultivated in the United States over security at Athens airport,” the tourist organization’s general secretary, Pandelis Lazarides, told a news conference. “We will be launching a new publicity campaign in the United States this autumn.”

Greek officials said Greece lost about $350 million in tourist revenue last year after President Reagan advised Americans to avoid Athens airport in the wake of the hijacking of a U.S. airliner by Arab guerrillas last summer. The travel advisory was lifted after airport security was improved.

More than 7 million tourists visited Greece last year, about 460,000 of them Americans. The Americans were the biggest spenders, contributing $500 million to Greek tourist revenue of $1.5 billion.