The Prime Minister had a working meeting with the Executive Committee of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) today. Kyriakos Mitsotakisfocusing on the current tourist season.

“I believe that we have already achieved our central goal, which is none other than the expansion of the tourist season, so that Greece is not exclusively a destination that our visitors prefer only in the summer months”, noted the Prime Minister at the start of the meeting, stressing that “the revenues of the state budget, which come from tourism and these exceeded initial goals set by the Ministry of Finance. As a result we have more financial strength to support society with a range of targeted measures to address the crisis of imported precision.”

“Common non-negotiable priority, it is the overall one upgrade our product. For the visitors who come to our country to spend more money, to measure the success of the tourist season not only by the number of arrivals, but mainly by the income that these visitors ultimately leave in our country”, underlined Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The Prime Minister referred to both of the government’s main political priorities. For the first, which has to do with the sustainability of the tourist product, Mr. Mitsotakis pointed out: “With the protection of the environment, with the protection of our destinations, especially some iconic destinations which are currently under great pressure and we should immediately think about their future, with interventions that cannot be delayed much longer”.

“The second has to do with the workers in tourism, with the possibility that everyone has the same dividend of success from the development of our tourism product. This is about them better wagesthe better working conditionsbut of course also the deficiencies that are already observed in terms of the workforce, something that obliges us to plan from now on interventions that will have a long-term imprint”, stressed Mr. Mitsotakis.

The prime minister also recalled the very great difficulties that the government managed in the last three years:

“The pandemic was an unprecedented test for the tourism industry, but we took bold decisions which were justified by the result, supporting the brand of Greece, opening from the first, but in an absolutely safe way. And I think we launched last year’s and this year’s developments essentially two and three years ago, when we managed – I believe – with great success and by supporting the tourism industry the unprecedented crisis of the pandemic”, he noted.

“Let me remind you that the average expenditure per traveler and per tourist increased by 8%. And the multiple investments made by the private sector and planned and already made by the Greek government and in public investments in everything to do with tourist destinations, are the guarantees for further development and support of both the agricultural sector and the commercial world and the hundreds of thousands of workers in tourism and real estate and construction. Since 8 out of 10 investments are now of touristic interest or infrastructure for tourism”, said the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias.

“Capitalizing on the very good brand name that the country has built, which was greatly strengthened during the coronavirus and the Covid pandemic and the way tourism opened in the summer of 2020 and continued to operate in the summer of 2021 being -in many cases and with many practices- and an example for the rest of the European countries, we managed, by capitalizing on this very correct strategy, to achieve impressive results”, stated the President of the Board of Directors of SETE, Yannis Retsos.

During the meeting, figures for the first months of 2023 and targets for the whole year were reviewed. It also highlighted that last year’s revenue exceeded budget by 2.6 billion euros, while record receipts were recorded in the three main markets: the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

As pointed out, passenger traffic at the country’s airports is up by 64.4% compared to the first two months of 2022 and by 2.5% compared to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year in which tourism was at a record high. It was emphasized that there is an expansion of the tourist season, while special mention was made of air connections with the United States and the opening of China, after the lifting of health restrictions.

At the same time, according to the Bank of Greece, travel receipts in January were increased by 71.9% compared to the first month of 2022, with a significant increase in revenues both from European Union countries and from countries beyond the 26 partners.

On the part of the government, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Kostis Hatzidakis, the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias, the Minister of State Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Finance Apostolos Vesyropoulos and the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Yiannis Bratakos took part in the meeting.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of SETE Yiannis Retsos, the First Vice-Chairman Grigoris Tassios, the Vice-Chairman Lysandros Tsilidis, the Vice-Chairman Panagiotis Tokouzis, the Vice-Chairman of Finance Manolis Giannoulis, the Vice-Chairman Euthychios Vassilakis, the Vice-Chairman Kallinikos Kallinikos, the General Secretary Giorgos Vernikos also participated. , the Deputy General Secretary Ioannis Paraschis, Achilleas Konstantakopoulos, member of the Board, and the Managing Director of Marketing Greece Ioanna Dretta.

The Prime Minister’s entire statement

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I am here with you today, at the Athens International Airport, on the occasion of the official opening of the tourist season, although I believe that we have already achieved one of our central goals, which is none other than the expansion of the tourist season, so that Greece is not exclusively a destination that our visitors prefer only in the summer months.

I, too, want to express my satisfaction with the overall performance of the industry over the past year. You clearly exceeded our expectations. And the revenues of the state budget, which come from tourism, exceeded the initial goals set by the Ministry of Finance.

As a result, we have more fiscal capacity to support society with a series of targeted measures to deal with the crisis of imported precision, whether it concerns energy bills, or whether it concerns overall living costs and supermarket prices.

You are right to say, Mr. President, that we have every reason to be optimistic about the coming year. And I believe that what we have achieved together – and when I mean together, I mean the state in all its aspects, but also the tourism sector in terms of upgrading the country’s brand – I think it is something that is very important and it makes us optimistic, not only for 2023, but also for the coming years. We will have an opportunity to discuss all of this later, as we have done many times.

To see the challenges and opportunities presented by the new markets we can open, the new services we can offer, the overall upgrade of our tourism product, because if something is – I believe – a common non-negotiable priority, it is the overall upgrade of our product. For the visitors who come to our country to spend more money, to measure the success of the tourist season not only by the number of arrivals, but mainly by the income that these visitors ultimately leave in our country.

But, as you said Mr. President, getting close to the top means increased obligations to protect what we have already secured. And there I would like to share with you two of my thoughts and these are non-negotiable political priorities of our government.

One has to do with the sustainability of the tourism product. With the protection of the environment, with the protection of our destinations, especially some iconic destinations which are currently under great pressure and we should immediately think about their future, with interventions which cannot be delayed much longer.

And the second has to do with tourism workers, with the possibility that everyone will have the same success dividend from the development of our tourism product. This has to do with better wages, better working conditions, but of course also the shortages that are already observed in terms of the workforce, which obliges us to plan interventions now that will have a long-term imprint.

Either more emphasis on tourism education and how to make the tourism industry more attractive to young people who are thinking about their professional careers from now on – here both the Public and the private sector can very well work together so that we can achieve this goal. Or also the possibility of being able to use tools related to our immigration policy to attract workers from abroad, if this becomes absolutely necessary.

I don’t want to take too long, because we will have a lot to talk about. I wish that we have a very successful tourist season and I am sure that we will all contribute to this.

I am absolutely convinced that the elections that will take place on the 21st of May will not disrupt the smooth running of the tourist season and from then on, when it comes time to make the overall annual report, we will again be pleased to have surpassed the goals we have set, so that tourism continues to surprise us pleasantly and not unpleasantly.

And of course I can’t help but remember, as we are here again in a better situation, the very great difficulties that we managed especially in the last three years: The pandemic was an unprecedented test for the tourism industry, but we took bold decisions which were justified as a result supporting the brand of Greece, opening from the first, but in an absolutely safe way. And I think we launched last year’s and this year’s developments essentially two and three years ago, when we managed – I believe – with great success and by supporting the tourism sector the unprecedented crisis of the pandemic.

Finally, let me tell you that I am optimistic about the tourism industry for another reason that has to do with a macro trend, which I believe is not going to change in the coming years, possibly in the coming decades.

I believe we will increasingly seek to consume our disposable income on experiences and not so much on goods. We offer experiences in all their guises as a tourist destination and I believe that is why the news for 2023 is still encouraging, despite the fact that Europe is also facing an economic crisis and a precision, which undermines disposable income not only in Greece but also in our main markets.

At the same time, new opportunities are here. There are markets which are still completely virgin for us. Let me mention one example, India, where we haven’t even “scratched the surface” of what we can do regarding the world’s largest country in population, which is not that far from Greece. So let’s think creatively, think smartly, and let’s keep this excellent level of collaboration we’ve had over the last few years as a guide for how the public and private sectors should work together.