Trade Associations

Greek tourism professionals unanimously agreed last month that a potential increase of the VAT rate on tourism services would be “disastrous” for the sector.

“Greek tourism has been switched to autopilot and left unattended, something that was obvious at this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF)… We did not hear that Greece would carry out what its competitors are im­plementing, whether that be a promotion campaign or the reduction of the Value Added Tax on tourism services,” President of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Tourism Enterprises (GEPOET) Marios Trivizas said.

“The case should be sent to Parliament if the prosecutor’s probe ends up apportioning blame to politicians,” Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Nikitiadis said in late July in regards to an investigative report on the Greek National Tourism Organization’s tourism promotion campaigns in 2008 and 2009.

Greek Prime Minister Yiorgos Papandreou and his visiting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu agreed last month to form a joint committee to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Strikes and protests against government austerity measures, port and archaeological site blockades, air traffic controller’s mobilizations and the recent fuel shortage caused by a trucker strike made Greece the target of critical international news stories amid the tourist season.

An action plan to combat the situation in the center of Athens that includes illegal immi­grants, drug dealing and abuse, prostitution and the sale of counterfeit merchandise, is currently in the works, according to Deputy Citizens Protection Minister Spyros Vougias.

Travel agencies today are in a dire position and the Greek state has taken no measures to support them, the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA) said recently in regards to the Manpower Employment Organization’s (OAED) subsidize programs for hotel employees.

The draft bill on the new development law steers away from present tourism policy and from the established positions of the tourism industry, the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels said last month.

While Greece was already suffering a decline in visitor numbers, the tourism sector was tested in July with disruptions to flights and an ongoing strike by fuel-truck drivers that led to gasoline shortages across the country.

The professional yacht sector is experiencing perhaps its worst year as bookings for professional yachts with crew have dropped more than 80 percent this year compared to 2009, Antonis Steliatos, president of the Hellenic Professional Yacht Owners Association, said.