Greek Tourism Still Unable to Capitalize on Cultural Heritage

Photo source: Unsplash.

Greek tourism is still unable to capitalize on the country’s rich history and cultural heritage, according to data presented on Tuesday during the Culture & Tourism Workshop held by Marketing Greece, a private marketing company for Greek tourism.

Although Greece is one of the top tourism destinations worldwide, the country ranked out of the top 10 destinations visited for cultural or religious tourism in 2019, with 2.4 million culture-related trips recorded.

Meanwhile, Greece’s Mediterranean rivals, Italy, France, and Spain, claimed the top three spots on the top 10 most popular cultural tourism destinations list for that year.

Source: INSETE.

Research by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body, offered valuable quality and quantitative findings on the state of cultural tourism in Greece:

• Greece managed a below-average score, compared to countries of South Europe, when it came to its museums and  archaeological sites’ variety and current state.
• The country marked one of the highest scores regarding its museums’ personnel and scored average or above average when it came to tickets prices and opening hours.
• 27 percent of those questioned said they wouldn’t revisit places of cultural interest in the next visit to Greece, while 55 percent said Greek museums and sites lacked a connection between culture and shopping (i.e., souvenirs or other related items).
• 28 percent rated the absence of digital apps at museums and sites negatively, while 38 percent criticized the cleanliness of culture-related areas.
• 81 percent of survey participants said the museums’ architecture as well as the surrounding urban area didn’t help with the overall experience.

Photo source:GTP.

Furthermore, a joint SETE, Marketing Greece, and MRB report among SETE’s members highlighted that Greek tourism can benefit more from local gastronomy’s promotion rather than advertising its cultural identity.

Overall, data showed that culture workers in Greece in 2018 still lagged behind the EU’s 3.8 percent average, with Greek cultural goods exports worth almost 140 million euros in 2017, compared to Italy’s 8 billion and France’s 7.8 billion, during the same period.

The Culture & Tourism Workshop acted as an initiative to stir up dialogue between Greek tourism stakeholders on how to enrich their offerings through Greece’s tangible and intangible cultural assets.