Insolvency of Germany’s FTI comes at critical time for Greek tourism

The announcement that Germany's FTI Group, Europe's third-largest tour operator, has filed for insolvency and will cancel or scale back trips that have not yet started comes at a critical time for Greek tourism as the main summer season begins.

FTI brings hundreds of thousands of Germans and other visitors to Greece, mainly to Crete, Rhodes, Kos and Corfu.

It is estimated that there are currently 7,500 visitors in Greece who booked their holiday through FTI, 4,000 of whom are on Crete.

Kathimerini understands that in recent months, the group has paid for the bulk of holiday packages that took place last season and had also paid May advances, after a consortium of investors came on board to help the group, which had been struggling financially since the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The signs were already clear in the past two months for those working with FTI …...