The flow of Europeans going on vacation to distant countries, to warm shores, is increasing – it's mid-June, school holidays have started in most European countries, and everyone wants to quickly get to the beach, swim in the sea, and sunbathe. The standard question arises – where is the best place to go? There are many different opinions and advice on this topic, based on various criteria – from the cost of travel to the safety of a given country, but one of the most important factors (at least for Europeans) in determining a vacation spot is, of course, the environmental cleanliness of a resort. Every year, the Research Institute for Tourism Ecology in Strasbourg conducts measurements in all EU countries, after which it compiles a kind of 'cleanliness rating' and publishes it at the beginning of summer.
This time Germany was quite unpleasantly surprised: this country, always proud of its cleanliness and order, did not take first place for the first time in the last ten years. The famous Baltic beaches and the resort towns of Lake Constance became only second on the list. For the Germans, this was a real blow. The Association of Tourism Enterprises of Germany seriously fears that this rating could reduce tourism revenue in the country and intends to officially demand a repeat study. However, it is unlikely to be conducted: after the fight, as they say, it's too late to wave fists. Nevertheless, the Germans themselves consider such a fiasco simply incredible – after all, local workers always try their best, literally sifting every grain of sand on the beaches. They have no idea why it turned out this way this time.
However, an even bigger surprise than Germany's second place was the winner of this year's rating – Greece. Until now, the general opinion was not in favor of Greek resorts: even last year, many tourists complained about murky water, uncomfortable, littered beaches, and other 'delights' of vacationing in Greece. Last year, this country took only the penultimate place in the ranking of European resort states, beating Bulgaria by just a couple of points, but the Greek authorities seem to have learned from this defeat and improved so much over the year that the strict inspectors from Strasbourg were more than satisfied. The problem of Greece, however, is that tourists are scared off by the ongoing clashes between local leftists and the police in the country.
Third place in terms of water and beach cleanliness was taken by the most popular resort country in Europe – Spain. According to statistics, more than 40% of all European tourists come here. However, there was a fly in the ointment: Spanish resorts have been getting more expensive in the last couple of years, and the end of the nearly year-and-a-half-long truce declared by the terrorist Basque organization ETA has not added optimism to vacationers. Nevertheless, Spain remains an ecologically clean resort country.
The outsiders in this competition of resorts were the 'newcomers' to the European Union – Bulgaria and Romania. However, these countries cannot complain about a lack of interest from vacationers, mainly due to their low prices. The cost of tourist services here is even lower than in the Baltic states. We can only hope that the European 'newcomers' will not fall flat on their faces in dirty water, at least next year.