People

Philoxenia, just as all of the world’s tourism exhibitions and shows, is a very important tool for professionals in tourism. It allows trade professionals from all over the world to meet, discuss and to get to know each other, yet, at the same time, this exhibition creates an ideal environment for the creation of new partnerships.

It is anticipated that Greece will host about 20 million tourists annually by 2012. This forecast is based on the current tourism policy and the positive turning point in tourism arrivals in the past ten years. The tourism environment has changed today and the success of new destinations has resulted in new requirements, expansion of the tourism market, and new opportunities from new forms of tourism.

Paulo Yoshikawa is Lufthansa’s new general manager for Greece and Cyprus. The Japanese-Brazilian national began his career with Lufthansa in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1975 and has been with the German carrier ever since. Before coming to Athens, Mr. Yoshikawa was based in Madrid, Spain for six years.

Antonio Temporini is Alitalia’s new regional manager for southeast Europe, including Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Romania, Bulgaria and the Balkans.

Last month’s Hellenic Hotel Chamber elections resulted in a new board led by Gerasimos Fokas, reelected as president, and Vasilis Plevris and Dimitris Karalis as vice-presidents.

The ITB Berlin supervisory board appointed two new members, Marco Montini, director of the Italian State Tourism Board, and Andreas Sakkas, director of the Cyprus Tourism Organization and president of Corps Touristique. The new members were selected to strengthen the board in the travel destination field.

Tourism Development Minister Fani Palli-Petralia recently appointed a new president and new secretary general to the Hellenic Tourism Organization. The new appointments, she said, would further enhance the development of the tourism sector with regards to investment.

In a surprise move last month, during a reshuffle of ministers the government replaced its tourism minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, with former deputy culture minister, Fani Palli-Petralia. The change of guard, however, went smoothly with the former tourism minister alongside Ms Petralia during a number of planned tourism events.

Tourism has been developing as a strong financial base of our national economy. Meanwhile, competition increases worldwide in this modern “tourist era” and new destinations make grand entrances into the tourism market. Thus, the improvement of quality for the development of the competitiveness of Greek tourism emerges as a priority goal and denotes our actions and goals.

Tourism movement to Greece was positive this year, especially after the first half, and initial indications for next year are very good. However, we must, on both a national and local level, ensure this tourism increase continues at a steady pace keeping in mind the strong international competitive environment.