People

The government says it will present a comprehensive restructuring plan for the country’s tourism administration. The announcement followed the replacement of government tourism leaders and the reshuffling of responsibilities among the Development Ministry’s General Secretariat for Tourism and the Hellenic Tourism Organization — Constantinos Botopoulos was appointed to head the ministry’s tourism secretariat and Nikos Dimadis took over as the head of the tourism organization.

Tourism is now the most dynamic sector of our economy contributing most to our gross national product. For the New Democracy Party tourism is our first-choice priority and the basic directions for its develop include:

For several years Greece’s tourism policy has focused on improving and differentiating the tourism offer in order to attract the quality traveler. According to announcements, the principle of viable development through the protection and promotion of the natural and cultural resources of our country rules.

After the terrorist activity of September 11 in the USA, a series of incidents have created unstable and intense competitive conditions within the global and European tourism market. Major European tour operators, within the framework of an even more aggressive policy, now exercise additional pressure for a reduction in hotel prices.

We live in a world where everything quickly changes on the world tourism stage with new tourism products, new consumer trends and increased international competition. Recent problems confronted by the tourism industry forced all, but particularly airlines and travel agents, to adapt to new realities. Greece must also adapt to these new realities and re-evaluate its tourism aims.

Unfortunately, we see no change towards the better for incoming tourism next year. Last year, and the year before, incoming dropped five percent and six percent respectively and for this year we foresee as much as a fifteen-percent drop in arrivals. The drop in arrivals from America has been phenomenal.

The future of Greek Tourism can be bright only if all components which make up this complex services industry agree to a unified medium and long-term strategy. Instead of paying lip service only, both state and private sectors could agree on a joint policy towards upgrading services offered by encouraging investment and offering incentives for quality improvements to the whole spectrum of tourism related services.

Independent of the present pessimistic climate within the tourism sector, mostly because this is the third consecutive year we’ve seen a drop in foreign arrivals and the price of our product, the prospects for tourism remain good. Our country remains an internationally recognized tourism destination and a safe haven of the Southeast Mediterranean. And it remains a destination with an unrivaled natural and human environment complete with a rich cultural heritage and satisfactory infrastructure.

Apart from what happens each year, which gives us some idea of our limits and what will follow so as we can adapt accordingly, we could say next year is particularly special because of the 2004 Games. If use exploit this opportunity appropriately, we could create a better climate for tourism in the years to come.

October 2003 to August 2004, just 10 months before the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens; a global event that marks the future direction of Athens, both economically and socially. The Athens-Attica area, however, even with the recent radical renovation of most hotel units and the creation of 5,000 new beds, continues to lose ground minute by minute. Tourism in Attica was and remains low, both in arrivals and length of stays in relation to development possibilities, because of the lack of basic tourism infrastructure (such as a conference center) and the lack of interest and programming on the part of the state and its branches to support the tourism product so as to lengthen the tourism period.