Tourism Minister Optimistic

Tourism Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos called a press conference recently and expressed his conclusions on Greek tourism and his optimism in regards to the current image Greece has within the sector.

Mr. Spiliotopoulos said that despite the fact that tourism is going through a strange and difficult period, Greece would eventually be included within the “winning destinations” of the global tourism market.

According to official data regarding the six-month period of January-June 2008, the major Greek airports saw the total of arrivals up three percent. In addition, the Bank of Greece reported a 3.2 percent income increase from tourism traffic in January-April 2008.

Yachting expects to see a nine to 10 percent increase, which, according to the minister, reveals that it will “remain the leading force of our country concerning our placement on the global tourism map.”

In reference to the tourist traffic to Greece from other countries, the tourism minister expects a slight increase from Greece’s major tourism markets such as the UK, Germany, Italy and France. He also predicted that Greek tourism would open in 2009 to “new markets” such as Ukraine, Romania, India, South Africa and Latin America.