Trade Associations

Tourism Development Minister Fanni-Palli Petralia recently met with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis where she outlined the activity in Greek tourism for the second quarter of 2007.

The Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies has declared the recent action of the Athens Urban Transport Organization illegal, with reference to the new “discover Athens sightseeing” bus, line 400.

The decision to provide the island of Kefallonia with an additional 40,000 euros for its advertisement campaign came from Tourism Development Minister Fanni-Palli Petralia recently in response to the recent fires on the island.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has requested that all participants of the forthcoming International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism to register with carbon offsetting organizations. The conference is to be held next month at Davos, Switzerland.

The General Secretariat for Youth under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs and the non-government organization PRAKSIS launched an innovative campaign to inform young people about a better quality of life.

Tourism Development Minister Fanni-Palli Petralia recently met Jean-Claude Baumgarden, president of the World Travel and Tourism Council in Athens.

Tourism Development Minister Fanni-Palli Petralia recently shut down 41 small and medium-sized hotels for failure to obtain fire safety certificates. Ms. Petralia, who has continuously expressed her desire to “protect the reputation of Greek tourism” took this decision and remains firm on the ministry’s aim to “clean up the landscape in the hotel sector because hotels are the backbone of Greek tourism.”

The president of the Hellenic Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies (HATTA), Yiannis Evangelou, estimates that tourist arrivals from Russia could reach some 500,000 in the next two years. He believes that Greece should proceed with carefully studied moves and the cooperation of all tourism bodies in order to expand its share of the Russian market for the entire calendar year.

The Tourism Satellite Account, now in the sixth month of a two-year plan, is soon to become a reality. According to Michael Sfakianakis who is a professor of the University of Piraeus (Department of Business Administration) and a member of the committee in charge of the project, anticipated that the account will be fully operational by late 2008, earlier than originally programmed.

Many members of the tourism industry see the importance in the promotion of Greece as an ideal conference destination, but claim that efforts to achieve this are un-coordinated and delayed. They believe Greece has many advantages over neighboring countries that compete in this sector. However, it is evident from their perspective that efforts to achieve this are few and far between and therefore will delay what is a significant step in turning Greece in to the much desired all-year-round destination. One example of this is the conversion of the Faliron Pavilion into a world class conference center, that in combination with the post Olympic campaign would lay the foundations for Greece to acquire a business tourism identity.