Former Tourism Development Minister Meets President of WTTC

Former Tourism Development Minister Fanni-Palli Petralia, met the president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, Jean Claude Baumgarten, who recently visited Greece.

During the meeting Mr. Baumgarten explained his initiative to visit Greece at this point is because “we have worked a lot on Greece during the last two years and we are in the phase of conducting a new report so we are extremely aware of the country.”

He asserted that he “considered visiting Greece in order to transfer the feelings of the international tourism industry for Greece.”

Mr. Baumgarten assured Greek tourism authorities that there has been no reduction in booking of holidays in Greece for the winter period or the following summer, neither from tour operators nor from the cruise sector.

With reference to the fires in Peloponissos, and the subsequent consequences to the Greek tourism product in general, Mr. Baumgarten explained that there is no negative feeling for Greece abroad and that  “Greece will be able to enjoy all the promotional efforts authorities undertook for the country during the previous years.”

He added that the number of reservations “remains stable and there is a desire for foreigners to travel to Greece.”

Ms. Petralia stressed that Greece is a safe country, modern and undoubtedly high in preference to foreign tourists and commented, “that’s the feeling of the international tourism community and no one should doubt this.”

She further explained “we have a research center in Oxford which is essential in giving the right factors in the models we implement to make our predictions for the future.”

With reference to this point she asserted “there are no changes in the factors for Greece hence there will be no need to adjust our models and we estimate that Greece will have a four to five percent increase in demand in the following years.”