Evros counts the cost of the Greek wildfires that raged for 16 days

The tourist resort of Alexandroupolis is struggling to rebuild from a disaster that destroyed property and drove away tourists.

Transcript

00:00 The scorched hillsides of northeastern Greece bear testament to the wildfires that gripped

00:06 the area for over a fortnight. What's less obvious on the surface is the impact on the

00:11 economy. In the resort of Alexandroupolis, residents and traders are counting the cost,

00:16 with up to 48% of the municipality's land affected.

00:20 "We are slowly gathering our losses from the records, both in building infrastructure,

00:27 in professional areas and in business activities. We are only taking in the houses, the main

00:34 and secondary homes that were burned. The fire took a number of areas with it, which are

00:39 linked to the production, to the primary sector and not only to Alexandroupolis."

00:45 The tourist trade was particularly hard hit, with thousands of cancellations, refunds and

00:50 forced departures.

00:54 It's been a devastating blow for businesses that rely on summer visitors.

01:01 "Alexandroupolis was a safe resort, an easy resort, for the Balkans, we are in the middle

01:08 of a market of about 50 million. You understand that this problem that was created, this situation,

01:15 will probably last for years, until the customer feels calm, feels confident that he will come

01:20 and find what was in Alexandroupolis, for the green, for the European Union, for the

01:25 seas, for its security."

01:29 Shops, cafes and restaurants were all forced to close and they reopened to find very few

01:34 customers in the resort.

01:36 "We are afraid for the future, because we are of the era, September is gone, mid-August

01:43 is gone. How will this be repaid?"

01:48 Residents, shopkeepers, businessmen of the tourism and the entertainment sector, emphasize

01:56 that the economic damage in Alexandroupolis is unimaginable after the huge environmental

02:01 disaster.

02:02 They say that things will be difficult, as they fear, for the next few years.

02:07 However, they hope that with the help of the state and their own great effort, everything

02:12 will finally go well and Alexandroupolis will rise anew.

02:16 From Alexandroupolis, for Euronews, Yiannis Karagiorgas.

02:21 [WHOOSH]