Trade Associations

Greece’s prefectures get 30% more than last year in funds for tourism promotion from the Hellenic Tourism Organization. Deputy Tourism Minister Anastassios Liaskos told reporters last month that the funds allocated this year amount to 4.5 million euros, against the three million awarded to prefecture tourism committees last year.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis showed his personal interest in the tourism sector last month when he opened this year’s general assembly of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. During his speech, he labeled tourism as a sector of national importance for the country’s economic strength, and a sector that provides benefits to all.

Greek Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, after his recent visit to China, said he would take steps to open up the local tourism market to millions of Chinese holidaymakers. While in that country, he signed a cooperation agreement with his Chinese counterpart.

The Association of Airline Company Representa-tives last month called on government to change present legislation so as to allow a second international airport to be created in the Athens area because, according to the association’s president, Dinos Frantzeskakis, the Athens Airport is the most expensive airport in Europe.

At his first confrontation with the press, Hellenic Tourism Organization President Haris Kokkossis said that he expects this year’s tourism arrival figures to stay at the same level as last year. (In an interview days earlier, the newly appointed president had said that he expected arrivals to drop some 8%.)

My first priority, Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos told Greece’s tourism leaders during a meeting last month, is to initiate “fire-fighting” measures to confront the negative arrival figures projected for the industry this year, despite our holding of the Olympic Games in Athens.

Government last month decided to suspend the listing of Hellenic Tourism Properties (ETA) on the Athens Stock Exchange.The company is a state-controlled one that leases property owned by the Hellenic Tourism Organization, including beaches,marinas, casinos and hotels, to private developers.

Haris Kokkossis, the new president of the Hellenic Tourism Organization, met late last month with the organization’s directors from abroad and was told that this year would be a difficult one for tourism arrivals to Greece.

On his recent trip to Russia for the MITT 2004 tourism fair, Tourism Deputy Minister Anastassios Liaskos sought an increase in Greek-Russia tourism cooperation to confront the problems Russian visitors have to acquire the needed visas to vacation in Greece. He said he would promote immediate actions to simplify the procedure.

The World Tourism Organization’s quality support and trade committee met last month for the first time under the new chairmanship of Portugal and addressed the issues of travel advisories, trade liberalization and health in international travel.