Laws, Regulations & Policies

Canadian Ambassador to Greece, Robert Peck, last month officially requested the immediate processing of necessary legislation and cutting of red tape for waterway investments to proceed in Greece and seaplanes to operate in Greek waters.

Greece’s Economy Ministry is considering slashing taxes to enable national economic development, press reports said last month.

The Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) hailed the visa facilitation pilot program launched last month that allows Turkish nationals to visit five Greek Eastern Aegean islands without …

“A capable and functional government with pro-European orientation in the Eurozone must arise from Greece’s second round of elections on 17 June,” the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), Andreas Andreadis, said last month during the association’s 20th General Assembly.

G20 economies could boost their international tourist numbers by an additional 122 million, generate an extra $206 billion in tourism exports and create over five million additional jobs by 2015 if visa processes are improved, according to preliminary research presented on the occasion of the fourth T20 Ministers of Tourism Meeting held last month in Merida, Mexico.

Five steps are needed to support Greek tourism, SETE said prior to the country’s parliamentary elections in May.

“The commission is looking into the issue of long waiting lines to obtain a visa, but also member states do not put their money where their mouths are as they should include more staff in consulates,” argued Diederik Paalman, deputy head of the visa policy unit of the European Commission, at an international conference held recently in Athens.

The contract for the 7.6 kilometer extension of Metro line 3 on the Haidari-Piraeus section that will include six brand new stations was signed last month, according to Attiko Metro S.A.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, last month called on the tourism sector to unite around the issue of travel facilitation as a means to stimulate demand and, as a result, create jobs.

Greek tour bus owners recently filed a complaint to the European Commission against the monopoly of the KTEL intercity buses and accused the ministries of transport and tourism for overprotecting the KTEL bus profession.