New Tourism Organization President Told of Difficult Year Ahead

Haris Kokkossis, the new president of the Hellenic Tourism Organization.

Haris Kokkossis, the new president of the Hellenic Tourism Organization, met late last month with the organization’s directors from abroad and was told that this year would be a difficult one for tourism arrivals to Greece.

They said that only an emergency promotion campaign could save the day.

According to the directors, the picture at the moment for the Greek tourism sector is a bleak one with the first two months of this season, April and May, lost in the abyss of nothingness.

Representatives from regional tourism directorates told the new president that accommodation units opening during this period are less than those of last year and that bookings for the period, and even for the month of June, bookings are at a particularly dangerous level.

Mr. Kokkossis is an environment and town planning professor with degrees in architecture, town planning and engineering from Greece and the U.S. He has written books and articles on the environment and tourism as well as development planning studies for international organizations.

The tourism directors also met with Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and his deputy minister, Anastassios Liaskos. The minister said an emergency promotional program was being studied and added that plans are underway for the development and improvement of regional tourism offices’ services.