Last-minute tourist reservations for Greece plunge 30pc

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.