“Tourism is a Government priority and for this reason, the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras has doubled the funding in the budget for 2017 for the overseas promotion of tourism in Greece”
This was a statement made by the Minister for Tourism, Ms. Elena Koundoura, during her speech in Parliament yesterday, on the subject of the overall budget for 2017.
She went on to mention the activities of the National Tourist Organisation in co-operation with the Ministry and highlighted the success seen over the last two years as a result of these actions. New figures for tourism have been achieved, despite certain difficulties and obstacles that have co-existed in this period of time.
2015 was a year that saw a record number of arrivals and net income from tourism, despite two National election periods, the referendum, threats of Grexit and a general lack of economic and political stability, with interventions from our lenders, which shows clearly that the the plan of action chosen by the Ministry was correct.
2016 once again saw the Industry reach unhoped for goals and despite serious geopolitical issues in the region of Europe in general and specifically in Greece; the refugee issue, terrorism attacks rocking European Countries, the attempted Coup in Turkey and the repercussions of the Brexit Referendum result.
An extension to the season from April to November saw record bookings in low season months and hotels remaining open until the end of November. Efforts to open up new markets, in particular, the high end, high spending tourist are showing good progress.
A far friendlier regime has been established to encourage foreign investment in tourism, with 142 projects under consideration for new development, infrastructure and specialist areas.
210 million euros are being made available via the Espa programmes 2014-2020, to benefit existing units and businesses in updating and improving their establishments.
The creation of a new field of interest with Spa and Spa resorts with treatments for health purposes is also a high priority.
Finally, the Minister stated that the entire system of registration and characterisation of all tourism units is under going changes in legislation, including alterations to the programme of education of students in the field of tourism.