Andreas Andreadis

President,
Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises

PHILOXENIA 2011 greeting.

At present, tourism is the main pillar of economic development and the creation of job positions. Especially in recent years, there is an apparent shift in public opinion on the recognition of tourism’s importance, mainly because it was understood that by 2020 it could offer the country’s economy so much growth as all other sectors of the economy together.

Today, with development as the main challenge, the Government and all political forces are called on to recognize and exploit the potential tourism has to contribute to this effort and therefore assign a leading role to it.

In the context of necessary overall reforms the priority is the effective change of mentality in which governments today approach entrepreneurship, at least in regards to the way it is expressed through the tax policy, employment policy, the fight against bureaucracy and incentives for investment.

A national strategy for tourism in turn requires interventions both to the management of demand and the development of the tourism offer. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the human factor requires special treatment, which is neglected in our country steadily.

SETE, as representative of all tourism businesses and as a social partner, is currently working, in collaboration with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, on a strategic development plan for tourism for the next decade as part of a national tourism policy.

GTP’s publications have always supported the efforts of Greek tourism towards this direction with responsibility and professionalism.

SETE expresses its congratulations for the special GTP edition at the Philoxenia exhibition and wishes every success to the publisher.