Dozens of Infrastructure Projects to Take Greek Tourism into New Era

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias. Photo source: @VKikilias.

One billion euros in infrastructure projects, including ports, marinas and ski resorts, are set to take Greek tourism into the new era, said Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias recently.

In an interview to Greek daily Kathimerini, Kikilias said the government would be announcing tenders for 39 high-priority projects the bulk of which concern water and water management, environmental protection and sustainability.

Among others, Kikilias said several works are aimed at enabling popular tourist destinations to cater to the high number of visitors all year round. Additionally, he said, actions through the creation of DMOs had been taken to ensure fair tourism development for all regions and destinations.

“Destination management organizations will ideally be able to effectively promote even the most degraded regions of the country and not just regulate flows to those that are flooded with visitors,” he said.

“We are talking about projects at ports and marinas, jetties and moorings, but also about infrastructure at ski resorts, mountain trails, waste management, sewage and also parking spaces,” said Kikilias.

One key project mentioned is creating a specially designated parking areas for tourist buses in the center of Athens, which he said will be of great benefit to city residents and visitors. Similar spaces will be created at other highly visited destinations such as on Santorini, he said.

In addition to this, the ministry is examining ways to manage the number of cruise ship arrivals to Santorini and set the maximum number of travelers per season that can be disembarked daily through a modern berth allocation system.

The minister went on to reiterate the government’s intention to regulate short-term rentals which in many cases operate as hotels.

“It’s a first step,” said Kikilias.

Looking ahead, the minister said he expects Greek tourism receipts to outdo pre-pandemic 2019 by 10 to 20 percent.