Long-term strategy for tourism

The government aims to adopt a long-term, wide-ranging strategy toward the tourism industry that includes focusing on activity-oriented and thematic tourism and Greece’s regional attractions, Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos said yesterday, underlining a shift away from the State’s customary expedient and short-term approach toward the sector. Addressing an Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) conference yesterday, the minister said the State plans to develop the tourism market based on a 10-year strategy. «We need a comprehensive tourism policy that allows the industry to expand to cover the entire year and which encompasses all forms of tourism,» he stressed. The State’s decision to adopt a new diversified approach for promoting the sector comes as the tourism industry finds itself in a slump following the September 11 attacks, while also having to battle against intense competition from neighboring countries which offer equivalent facilities at cheaper rates. Tsochadzopoulos said the government will be intensifying efforts to promote alternative forms of tourism, among them ecotourism, sports tourism, spas and health programs, in a move designed to attract high-quality and free-spending tourists. The new strategy also aims to stretch the tourist season to beyond the summer. He said this year’s allocation of a 10-billion-drachma (29-million-euro) advertising budget to publicize Greece’s assets abroad should do the trick in attracting tourists to the country. The minister said the government’s recent decision to decentralize the responsibilities of the Greek National Tourist Organization (EOT) into 13 regional authorities around the country will improve efficiency. He said the planned flotation this year of ETA, EOT’s tourism asset management unit, should raise the necessary funds for the company to enable it to play a bigger role in promoting the industry. Stelios Andreadis, SETE president, said more action is needed for the industry to rise above its present doldrums and attract more tourists to Greece. «Greece’s lack of tourism infrastructures, such as golf clubs, conference centers, spas and marinas, is the principal reason why the tourism industry is a seasonal activity running from July to September,» he pointed out. Andreadis urged the government to simplify the development law, build the relevant tourism infrastructure and escalate the advertising campaign with greater focus on the 2004 Olympic Games. He said the association has set a target of 19.4 million incoming tourists and tourism receipts amounting to $15 billion at the end of the decade. This would imply a 0.68-percent increase in Greece’s share of the European market to 3.68 percent, and its share of the global market to 1.92 percent from 1.87 percent now. The SETE head also urged companies to upgrade their operations with an emphasis on the quality of services and value-for-money products. Yiannis Evangelos, head of the travel agents’ association HATTA, said travel agents should improve their services and make greater use of the Internet.