“In 2022, the spearhead of the country’s development will be tourism,” Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias told SKAI. The fullness in the winter destinations during all the festive days reached and exceeded 90%, the minister pointed out.
“Let me remind you that it was our decision to keep open these destinations that have been closed for the last two years and this proves once again that in 2022 the spearhead of the country’s development will be tourism. Not only summer tourism, now “Tourism throughout the year” said Mr. Kikilias.
The minister’s interview in detail:
The evidence from the agreements we are concluding is very encouraging
The figures are very encouraging. Just yesterday we agreed with Apollo Travel Group for 500,000 high level visitors in 2022. It is the largest tour operator in Scandinavia for Greek destinations. They are the ones who opened a sports tourism hotel in Sivota last year and this year we will inaugurate their new hotel in Lemnos in May. They also invest in winter tourism in Epirus.
DER Touristik, the second largest tour operator in Germany, requested an extension of the tourist season for 2022 for October, November and December and spoke of a 20% increase in arrivals in Greece compared to 2019, asking to start in March.
We also agreed with the cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line, which will have a home port in Piraeus after five years and with CLIA, the International Association of Cruise Companies, for a 50% increase in cruise in the country and start instead of April 15, the 1st Of March.
The Ministry of Tourism is a ministry of finance, as 1 in 4 euros in the Greek economy and the country’s GDP comes from tourism. And all the co-responsible bodies, Ministries, Regions, Municipalities and the private sector have to work hard and together, so that this is distributed to the average Greek family. It is a reality and it is a visible goal for 2022.
We aim for a sustainable model for the upgrade of our tourism product
Coronavirus has changed the way people travel. I think the issue now is the revenue and the quality of tourism more even than the quantity.
In 2021 for the first time we exceeded 600 euros of revenue per traveler, per visitor. And this is a sample of a sustainable tourism model that we want to implement and a framework such that in every region in the country we will be able to upgrade our product and this will bring more revenue.
We want to support our destinations, to have high revenues for tourism that will be distributed to Greek society and to protect the unique experience that the country offers.
The Government supports the Greek Tourism
In consultation with the Presidency of the Government, the Ministries of Finance and Labor, announced for these 15 days of January, with the possibility of expansion, the support with the possibility of suspension of 25% of employees in hotels, travel agencies and reservation services, as well as a specialist program from the Public Investment Program for the business of organizing conferences and trade fairs, which have been affected.
Once again, the Greek government stands by the very important for the economy, tourism sector. But our vision and ambition is to move the year like this – and we see the data very encouraging – so that not only is this not required in duration, but on the contrary, as in 2021 we had 6 billion more revenues from tourism which were credited in our budget and ended up in the Greek economy, so that the revenues for 2022 will be multiplied.
This is what domestic investors, overseas investors and tourism people tell us who count bookings.
The Prime Minister responded to the scenarios of early elections
The Prime Minister just yesterday gave an interview and answered. I do not think any of us need to interpret it.
Greek Tourism has shown that it is steel
Greek tourism has shown that it is steel. We made sure in 2020 that with our health protocols and the way we dealt with the pandemic – I had the honor to head the Ministry of Health for the last two years – without vaccines, without the possibility of vaccination and we could have a tourist product and arrivals, when all the other Mediterranean countries remained closed. And in 2021 we had impressive revenue and tourism performance. It’s the other aspect of the serious professional and organized plan we had to deal with the pandemic.
According to what our scientists say, the rapid escalation of “Omicron” we hope will lead to a rapid de-escalation. Many are talking at the moment about the pandemic, about “Omicron”, about “Delta”. Institutionally, those who have taken on this role must speak and be listened to. The many references to this issue do not help Greek society and certainly when the major opposition decides to operate with a micropolitical, partisan focus on the pandemic, it has proven over the past two years that it has had the opposite effect.
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