Yep, it’s a tradition...more or less.
I worked for a US company which decided to offer up some services and contracts back in 1999...related to the 2004 Olympics. They were going to build a state-of-the-art command and control system for the national government (cops, military, emergency services, everything integrated).
First shocker after they signed the contract was that the Greeks then said all of the employees on the project had to live in Greece (wasn’t in the original contract). So, they shipped off thirty-odd IT people to live out of hotels.
As the delivery date came with the package....the company had been successful and tied everyone into this....more or less dragging them into the modern computer age. Then it came time for Greece to pay the company. It was supposed to be around $320 million. The Greeks decided whoever signed the contract for them....wasn’t authorized, and refused to pay. The company sat there in shock, then hired a lawyer. The last I heard...after a decade of legal fighting in Greece....they’d come to agree to pay $50 million and that was to be the end of the mess.
I doubt if the system is still working, and they’ve probably gone back to white boards, telephones, and walky-talkies.
Tourism is their number one industry I believe, and if so, it’s for good reason.