ATHENS (Reuters) - Early summer bookings to Greece are down by up to 10 percent, the head of the country's hotels federation said yesterday, as the debt crisis and fears of social unrest make holidaymakers think twice about visiting.

Tourism accounts for nearly a fifth of Greece's output and is the main driver of its 240-billion-euro ($322.6 billion) economy. How it fares is crucial for the recession-hit economy and its capacity to emerge from a crippling fiscal crisis. "There is currently a five to 10 percent year-on-year drop in early bookings, mostly from Germany and the UK," Andreas Andreadis, head of the Hellenic Hotel Federation.

"We estimate that the situation will gradually improve and for 2010 we will see a small rise in arrivals and a small drop in revenues compared with last year."

In 2009, spending on holidays by foreign tourists dropped 10 percent to 10.4 billion euros ($13.4 billion), pushed lower by the global financial crisis, a strong euro, competition from cheaper nearby destinations and social unrest in Greece.

The number of foreign holidaymakers visiting the Mediterranean country dropped about eight percent last year and hotels depended mainly on last minute bookings, slashing prices to attract visitors.