Konstantinos Palaskonis, President General Pan-Hellenic Federation of Tourism Enterprises

Philoxenia 2014 greeting.

As every year, the 30th International Exhibition Philoxenia is the main meeting point for tourism professionals in Greece. It stands as a major tourism forum for all tourism enterprises.

GEPOET, the secondary collective body of Travel Agencies & Coaches of the country, would like to thank all participants for taking part, welcome all foreign trade visitors and express its gratitude to GTP for keeping the strong bonding among the members of the tourism sector.

2014 was the year with an unprecedented growth for Greek tourism in arrivals but not without problems. The Russian market crisis will leave its mark but the private sector has always recovered and will again make a strong comeback to its course. This lesson taught us that diversification is wise and other promising markets such as China, India or Brazil showing tremendous potential can help Greece increase arrivals and revenue and establish our country as a tourist destination.

Tourism is perhaps the only pillar of growth, the only sector which boosts our economy back to its positive track. It is a fact that 2014 was the year of turnaround for domestic tourism and yet remains to be seen how the market is going to react. Thus, the main target of tourism professionals for the year to come is to upgrade the traveling experience we offer, to increase the average revenue per visitor and of course to extend the tourism season all-year round.

Good luck to all.

We wish you a profitable and prosperous year.