The need to draw up a national strategy for tourism, which is the “steam engine of the economy” of the country, was underlined by the president of SYRIZA-PS, speaking at an event of his party in Heraklion, Crete, on small and medium entrepreneurship and tourism, while he accused the Mitsotakis government of did not take advantage of the fiscal potential of the past four years and left Greek tourism on autopilot.

Watch live the speech of Alexis Tsipras:

The result of the choice of the previous government, said Mr. Tsipras, is that “Greek tourism today presents essential structural deficiencies, in terms of infrastructure, the diversification of the tourist product, the quality of the services offered, the institutional framework, which make it increasingly a weak player in an increasingly competitive and complex international market and a “bulwark” of international geopolitical developments”.

Analyzing the tourist product in Greece, he said that its characteristic is the triple concentration:

– Thematic concentration, around the dominant product “sun and sea”,

-Geographic concentration, along the coastal zone and

-Temporary concentration, in the summer months.

In the context of another national strategy for Greek tourism, he underlined: “decisions and strategies for development models, both in general and in particular in the tourism industry, cannot be prepared in the absence of its people: the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and the workers who with the their daily effort keeps the country and their industry standing. We see tourism as a vehicle through which we can promote the overall transformation of the Greek economy in the direction of green and sustainable development.”