Kefalogianni: “Tourism Can Lead Greece Out Of The Crisis”

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni on 10 November urged her fellow MPs in Parliament to “leave behind the bankrupt past, say no to misery and give a vote of confidence to the road that leads out of the crisis.” Mrs. Kefalogianni was speaking during the debate on a call by leftist opposition SYRIZA for a motion of censure against the government.

During her speech, the minister referred to tourism as “the greatest tool and huge growth driver of Greek economy.” She stressed for the need of political stability as “uncertainty has an adverse affect on the country’s image.

“In this extremely critical time, the tourism growth fueled the hope that things can get better. Greek tourism can become a huge driver of growth,” Mrs. Kefalogianni underlined.

The tourism minister added that major steps had been taken through collective effort with many positive results over the last 16 months.

“From the first moment we followed a clear national plan by using tourism as a development model, as a tool to lead the country out of the crisis,” she said.

The axes of the national plan for tourism involve a series of interventions from the new tourism law (N. 4179), the tourism development through the special zoning plan for tourism, the optimal use of the structural funds from the Contract/Partnership Agreement for the Programming Period 2014-2020 (new National Strategic Reference Framework) and restoring Greece’s image abroad.

On leftist opposition SYRIZA’s call for a motion of censure against the government, Mrs. Kefalogianni referred to it as “not beneficial for the country as it creates an image of instability and uncertainty.”

The censure motion against the government failed to pass in Parliament.