NOT all European holiday spots are turning their backs on boozy Brits -with the Greek resort Laganas calling on partygoers to "come, party and drink".
The resort – situated on the island ofZante and famous for its stag-dos and bar strip – is welcoming holidaymakers with open arms.
Laganas deputy mayor Charalambos Varvarigos told Sun Online Travel that the resort was already drawing the younger 18-30 crowd, with around 80 percent of bars along the strip open and doing a roaring trade.
He said: "Never mind that they like to drink and have fun and get drunk … that is what holidays are for.
"Young Brits who aren’t afraid, who don’t care so much about the hygiene protocols and all that stuff, have come and are out every night.
"Older people are staying away. It’s clear they’re more frightened.”
On Greek islands that depend heavily on UK tour operators, certain areas like Laganas are buzzing, despite Greece seeing a rise in coronavirus cases.
Around 60 percent of hotels in the famous party resort have opened and are hosting Brits.
Mr Varvarigos told us “We love the Brits. Generations here have grown up with them and some of our best friendships are with people in the UK.
“We want them here. We’re really looking forward to them coming and we’re now hoping tour operators that have had to cancel flights to Spain will see Greece as the alternative.”
Just this week, TUI added extra flights to Zante this weekend after scrapping flights to the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands.
They have added seven new flights this weekend to Crete, Rhodes, Zante and Corfu in Greece.
TUI has holidays in Zante starting from £359pp this weekend including flights – click here to find out more.
A lot of UK visitors were so determined to get to the island they had rebooked flights via Holland and Poland, he said, after tour companies had cancelled original bookings.
But numbers were still far behind last year.
Even though the younger crowd has put fear aside to travel to the hotspot, planes are arriving half full, tourism officials say.
Mr Varvarigos added: “We had six Jet2 planes come in last week with only 300 passengers in total on board.
“Most of the hotels that are open are only half full but we realise this is a difficult summer. If a few hundred people come every few days that’s better than nothing.”
Earlier this month, we revealed that Greek hotels had been slashing prices to as cheap as £11 in a bid to entice tourists.
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