The Acropolis
Similarly to the European men who travelled to Greece in the past and wanted to expose themselves to Greece’s cultural legacy, I began my Grand Tour by visiting the Acropolis, a historical landmark in Athens that has attracted tourists from all across the globe. A general admissions ticket for the Acropolis is twelve euros for adults, and six euros for children under the age of eighteen and/or students, a price I, as well as the other thousand of tourists visiting that day were prepared to pay. Touring the Acropolis meant coming face to face with architectural landmarks that have survived for thousands of years and serve as a bridge between the ancient and modern world.
Young European aristocrats travelled to the Acropolis during their Grand Tour, and wrote about their travels. As a result, the fame of the Acropolis spread across Europe. In Britain, the Parthenon's marbles were exhibited, sparking an interest among scholars in the physical relics of Ancient Greece. Lord Byron, one of the most influential travellers in the 19th century, wrote a poem entitled Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which became one of the most popular poems of the period and contributed to the recognition of the Parthenon as a symbol of Greek National Identity. According to the Athens and Attica guidebook, "the Acropolis is the symbol of Athens, the sacred rock, linking the fabulous ancient civilisation with the modern city. The monuments on the Sacred Rock date back to the prehistoric era and antiquity. The grandeur and the beauty of the Sacred Rock attract both Greek and foreign visitors".
For instance, the Parthenon is renowned worldwide as a great cultural monument on the Acropolis. The Parthenon replaced the Old Temple of Athena and is dedicated to the goddess Athena whom is the city’s patron Saint. In Greek mythology, there was a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of the city of Athens. Poseidon struck the Acropolis with a rock and gave the people of Athens salt water, while Athena offered the gift of the olive tree which has acquired symbolic importance. (I had the pleasure of learning about this myth, among many other, in my Greek Mythology course offered under the Neo-Hellenic Studies minor).
According to the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises and the Bank of Greece, tourism contributes to 18% of Greece's GDP. As of 2015, the World Bank Group reported Greece's GDP to be $237.59 USD Billion. That being said, tourism amounts to approximately $42.8 USD Billion in 2015. It cannot be denied that tourism is a crucial component of Greece's economy. As a result of the media's magnification of the current Greek debt crisis, many tourists are reluctant to spend their holidays in Greece this summer. I believe that this is a period where people should be even more inclined to visit the country in order to stimulate its economy as much as possible. After all, Greece's climate, culture, landscape, and history, form enough of a basis to convince tourists of a wonderful vacation.