Minister Calls To Update Tourism Model

Greece has a “tough” currency and increased labor costs while images recently released have been devastating for the country’s tourism: fires, terrorism attacks, prison escapes and battle scenes on the streets of Athens, stressed Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos at the 20th Greek Economy Conference of the American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.

During the open discussion of the conference, entitled “The Hellenic Culture: The comparative asset of Greece for tourism development,” Mr. Geroulanos said the new leadership of the Culture and Tourism Ministry would not invest in an outdated model of tourism that was used until recently and had led tourism to the “perfect storm.”

“From the end of the 1990’s it was clear that the ‘sun and sea’ model was part of the past,” he said.

“Greece of the 2004 Olympic Games and the messages passed to the world at that time were not included within the advertising campaigns that followed,” the minister said.

Mr. Geroulanos underlined that the previous ad campaigns simply wasted money to attract a low economic level of British and German tourism markets.