Key Tourism Figures 2016: Spyridon Alexiou, President Greek National Tourism Organization

Official Tourism Message

For Greece, tourism has always been a sector of great importance. For decades it has been contributing substantially to the GNP, creating employment and facilitating regional and local development.

The tourism industry performance has been remarkable through the last years, concerning international arrivals as well as receipts. It is our intention to work hard so that tourism continues to play an important role in the economy, producing at the upmost of its potential.

The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) is the sole and exclusive public agency which promotes Greek tourism abroad. That is GNTO undertakes and implements the task of the country’s tourism promotion to international markets. GNTO’s mission is to enforce the value of Greek tourism in cooperation with the tourism industry and the organizations involved, aiming at further increasing incoming tourism and tourist receipts.

Greece has been established as a mass sun and sea tourism destination, even though all relevant research shows that it is not conceived as such by the tourists. A key task of the tourism policy is to limit the dependence from this model, create and promote theme and special interest quality products by contributing to the target of differentiating and upgrading its tourist clientele and, at the same time, enhancing the environment and meeting the needs and expectations of the local society.

In this context, GNTO intends to be dynamically present in the international tourism markets, both traditional and new ones.

Living in a country estimated globally as an agent of peace, cooperation and security, and having faith in the Greek tourism potential and its people, I express my deep hope and optimism that the future of tourism in Greece will be great and beneficial to the economy, the society and our guests.