Marine Tourism Underdeveloped

Greece’s many advantages in the area of marine tourism have not been taken advantage of, nor used to their full potential, according to Antonis Stelliatos, the newly elected president of the Hellenic Professional Yacht Owners Association.

In Greece, he says, there are about 3,200 professional yachts sailing under a Greek flag and this number of yachts is expected to rise considerably if the merchant marine and tourism development ministries redouble their promotion efforts and work closely with tourism leaders in the Greek marine sector.

Mr. Stelliatos says special emphasis must be given to improving the yacht mooring infrastructures.

“It is unacceptable for Greece to have islands such as Santorini with just one marina, when rival countries such as Croatia, which has as many as 81 marinas, and Turkey, which has very modern units.”