Trade Associations

The protocol of the 2nd Joint Greek-Russian Tourism Committee was signed last month in Moscow, headed by General Secretary of Tourism Yiorgos Poussaios for the Greek side and vice president of the Federal Tourism Service of Russia’s Tourism Sports and Youth Ministry Evgeni Pisarevski for the Russian side.

Tourism arrivals are down 10 percent so far this year, while hotel room prices are also down by 10 percent, President of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels Yiorgos Tsakiris said last month in response to a report published by the New York Times newspaper on Greek tourism trends.

The tourism agreement signed between Greece and Cyprus 20 years ago will be updated and issues of common interest will be included, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Nikitiadis said last month. “These issues concern special forms of tourism, common travel packages to key markets, tourism-oriented investments and the exchange of know-how,” he added.

Culture needs the physical support of tourism to grow and to offer, while tourism needs culture to make a distinction and gain recognition within an overcrowded market, travel journalist and PASOK Member of Parliament Magia Tsokli said in parliament last month.

The Greek National Tourism Offices abroad have undertaken the leading role to reverse the negative climate that has been created in the foreign markets at the expense of Greek tourism, according to a recent decision made by the newly-formed Crisis Management Committee.

Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Angela Gerekou resigned from her post last month after the Greek press reported that her husband, singer Tolis Voskopoulos, currently owes some five million euros in unpaid taxes.

Almost two weeks after the violent anti-austerity protests in Athens center on 5 May, during which three people died in a fire set by self-styled anarchists, some 28,000 hotel room reservations were canceled in the Greek capital and the trend is steadily rising, Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association General Secretary Alexandros Vasilikos told journalists last month. The data is from 68 central hotels (out of some 450 hotels in Attica).

The Special Secretariat for Digital Planning of the Ministry of Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping recently announced the approval of 2,143 investment proposals to take part in the Digi-Lodge funding program for hotel lodgings.

A constant problem of car rental companies is the inability to rent cars to non-European Union citizens who do not have an internatio­nal drivers license, the Greek Car Rental Companies Association said recently in an announcement.

The luxurious status of the most expensive airport in Europe must end, according to the Hellenic Association of Airline Representatives (SAAE) in regards to Athens International Airport’s (AIA) high aviation charges.