‘Warning’ sparks Greek euro confusion
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Holiday companies and consumers faced confusion over the state of the Greek euro yesterday after DialaFlight warned customers to dispose of Greek-printed notes.
Financial analysts have rumoured Greece could exit the euro for two years as the country’s economic situation continues to deteriorate but it is still unclear whether it will, or even can legally, happen.
While Greece’s government and the EU continue the talks, flight-seller DialaFlight advised its customers to swap any euro notes printed in Greece for other countries’ as the notes could become unusable if Greece does exit the euro. The company’s Peter Stephens told The Independent’s Simon Calder it had made the warning following speculation in the country, although no official announcement has been made.
On a comment on Calder’s Independent story, CompareHolidayMoney said the issuing country would ‘have no relevance to the validity’ of a euro note and that the story was an ‘urban myth’.
Meanwhile, Directline Holidays downplayed the situation, saying that although riots have broken out in Athens, previous action has not deterred travellers from visiting other areas and holiday prices to the country remain competitive.
“Currently the FCO have no travel restrictions in place and none of our partners have reported any concerns but we always advise holidaymakers take due care when travelling out to regions where unrest has been reported,” said Maria Whiteman, managing director at Directline. “It is of course possible that holidaymakers could be put off by demonstrations or holiday security but given that the islands remain mainly unaffected and historically travel hasn’t dipped on the back of unrest we aren’t anticipating a decline”.
She added capacity for 2013 remains the same as this year for several tour operators.
