Laws, Regulations & Policies

Greece has made significant reforms in recent months to the tourism sector that aim to solve chronic problems, Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni informed the head of the European Commission Task Force for Greece, Horst Reichenbach.

A Joint Action Plan on tourism cooperation for the 2013-2015 period was signed today, 15 October, in Moscow between Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni and the Russian Federation’s head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, Alexander Radkov, and deputy head, Evgeny Pisarevsky.

Tourism officials in Moscow have been assured by Greece that the necessary initiatives to further simplify the visa application process would be taken, while the ultimate aim is to abolish the visa requirement altogether.

By the summer of 2014 the first two diving parks are expected to operate in Greece, according to a joint decision of the Ministers of culture and sport, Panos Panagiotopoulos, and Marine, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, that was recently published in the Government Gazette.

Greece and Israel signed a joint declaration on tourism cooperation on 8 October, following a meeting in Jerusalem between Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni and her Israeli counterpart Uzi Landau.

The Greek Tourism Ministry will soon set up a tourism information office in Istanbul to attract more Turkish travelers to Greece, it was announced on 7 October.

Greece will try to attract an upmarket tourist clientele by boosting new investments, upgrading offered services and developing new and attractive tourism products, Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni told the Mediterranean Luxury Travel Summit in Athens on 7 October.

Seeking to further develop Europe’s tourism potential, the European Commission is preparing a review of the Visa Code before the end of this year.

In order to foster employment and mobility in the tourism sector, the European Commission has launched EURES, the first pan-European job portal that currently has many openings in the tourism sector.

The results of Greece’s recently introduced favorable regulations to attract investment to the economy were presented today, 23 September, at a briefing in Athens by the Invest in Greece agency and the Greek Ministries of Development and Interior.