ETOA is urging EU member states and the European Parliament to press forward with reform of the Schengen visa scheme to meet changing market expectations.
The Network for the European Private Sector in Tourism, which gathers the main travel and tourism and trade associations in Europe, is calling on the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) to adopt a smart Schengen Visa package.
Pushing for year-round tourism growth by tapping into local products, culinary traditions, cultural offerings and the beauty of its landscape, the Region of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace participated in this year’s Philoxenia travel fair held in Thessaloniki last week.
Greek Consul General in Jeddah Chronis Polychroniou has announced that Greece has issued a new law that allows investors from non-EU countries to obtain resident permits for five years, provided the investment is at least 250,000 euros.
All consular authorities of Greece are instructed to extensively use all Schengen visa system facilities to issue visas without delay and with the minimum of formalities, Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Monday 10 September.
The visa facilitation pilot program launched in June that allows non-European Union citizens to enter Greece from Turkey and visit five Greek Eastern Aegean islands without a visa from a Greek consulate was said last month to be making big progress.
“The commission is looking into the issue of long waiting lines to obtain a visa, but also member states do not put their money where their mouths are as they should include more staff in consulates,” argued Diederik Paalman, deputy head of the visa policy unit of the European...
Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Yeroulanos recently highlighted the importance of free movement of tourists around the world and underlined the need to change the Schengen visa procedure in order for it “to stop being a burden on tourism.
The Greek Government has undertaken extensive initiatives to facilitate the arrival of Russian tourists to Greece and visitors from countries such as India and China, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister George Nikitiadis said at the 18th Moscow International Travel and Tourism...
