SETE Calls For Private Corporation To Handle Tourism Promotion

The Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) recently forwarded a letter to the Hellenic Tourism Organization (EOT) and suggested that a cooperation with the private sector would be ideal to promote tourism.

“Never has there been a greater need for a dynamic communication policy which would contribute decisively to the development and promotion of Greek tourism,” the association’s letter read.

It confirmed the above during the recent Greek Olympic Committee’s visit to Sydney, in which it also participated. While there, the association’s director, George Dracopoulos, met with the Australian Tourist Commission, the body that coordinates private and public activities in the tourism field.

Mr. Dracopoulos says the commission acts as a good example that EOT could follow in the formation of a private corporation to deal with the promotional and advertising needs of the Greek tourism industry. The commission has an annual budget of 24 billion drachmas in a country that attracts 4.1 million arrivals annually and whose tourism industry earnings represent 10 percent of gross domestic product. (EDITOR’S NOTE: GTP has called for a similar policy in at least two editorials published in the past six years.)

Separately, as part of its efforts to raise the quality of the Greek tourism product through cooperation between the public and private sectors, SETE organized a visit to Costa del Sol in Spain for Greek local authority representatives. The trip was supported and co-funded by the Hellenic Tourism Organization.

Representatives from EOT, SETE and some 20 municipalities of Attica, Arkadia, Zakynthos, Corfu, Crete, Paros, Rodes, Poros, Olympia, Chalkidiki and the Sporades Islands participated.