Laws, Regulations & Policies

Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister George Nikitiadis last month held a meeting with Izmir Chamber of Commerce chairman Ekrem Demirtas on the development of Greek-Turkish economic relations with a particular emphasis on business and tourism.

Greek tourism professionals were stunned last month when they were informed that the abolition of the Workers’ Housing Organization was included on an agreement of austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors in exchange for a new bailout loan.

“Tour operators and travel agencies need to modernize their way of operation and provide high quality services and specialized products in a responsible and professional manner,” Yiorgos Telonis, president of Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) said in late January at the official launch of “EOS CODE,” the European Code of Practice on Environment Oriented Sustainability.

“It is very important for our country that we are participating for the first time in a consistent European initiative that aims to attract tourism to Europe,” Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister George Nikitiadis said last month after signing a memorandum of understanding to increase tourist flows between South America and Europe.

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Yeroulanos recently highlighted the importance of free movement of tourists around the world and underlined the need to change the Schengen visa procedure in order for it “to stop being a burden on tourism.

Fast track procedures for tourism investments are underway at the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Greek National Tourism Organization via the establishment of a special service that will promote and license tourism investments.

“Cabotage is finally lifted,” the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) said last month after the Cabinet approved the bill that included the full lifting of cabotage restrictions for non-European Union flag cruise ships.

Recent data showed that incoming tourism to Greece increased last year (10 percent increase in arrivals and revenue) but nothing guarantees that the same will happen in 2012, the general director of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), George Drakopoulos, said at the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce’s 22nd Greek Economy Conference “The Time for Responsibility, Decisions & Action” that took place in Athens in mid-December.

The time period for the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) to grant licenses for Greek tourist accommodation will be reduced from 240 days to 60 days, according to arrangements contained in an omnibus bill presented in late December 2011 by Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Yeroulanos.

Greek Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) has announced a four-month subsidy program for
workers of seasonal hotels, provided they retain their job positions during the period the hotel is closed.