New Tourism Bill Expected To Bring Long-Term Growth

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni

“The new tourism bill aims for long-term growth,” Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said yesterday, 30 July, during her speech in Greek Parliament.

The new bill for Greek tourism will be voted in Parliament tonight, 31 July.

Mrs. Kefalogianni said the Tourism Ministry’s goals for 2012 and 2013 were achieved and referred to this year’s increase in arrivals and revenue.

In the year running up to May 2013, tourism revenue had increased 38.5 percent and foreign arrivals 24 percent, according to the Bank of Greece.

“The aim for 2014 is to establish long-term growth: for Greek tourism to be resistant to circumstances, strong in crises and constantly evolving,” she said.

The tourism minister said the new bill for tourism would achieve this for Greece through six key directions:

• strengthening entrepreneurship and facilitating investment
• diversifying Greek tourism by introducing new tourism products
• ensuring the quality of the country’s tourism infrastructure and services
• enriching the tourism offer through special forms of tourism
• developing the country’s human resources by upgrading professional training and creating new types of jobs
• improving the country’s tourism policy

“This bill is a product of methodical process, systematic cooperation with other ministries and exhaustive consultation with social and sectoral bodies,” Mrs. Kefalogianni said.

“It forms a functional and modern investment environment, promotes a new and substantially upgraded product and creates a new reality for domestic and international tourism entrepreneurship,” she added.