Elena Kountoura, Alternate Minister of Tourism

Official Tourism Message

The achievements of the Greek Tourism Industry are outstanding and this is the reason why we need to support choices that enhance quality, innovativeness, investments and infrastructure. In order to support this continuous progress of Greek Tourism, we have planned an ongoing national strategy, defined by basic goals and special actions.

Our priorities are the overall promotion of Greek Tourism abroad, its powerful presence on the world map, the opening of new markets, while supporting the traditional ones and of course the development of new forms of tourism.

More particularly we aim at the detailed elaboration of different parameters, which define the tourism product of Greece. For this reason we study sectors like education, quality of services and products, the promotion and support of every form of special tourism and of course the extension of the tourist season.

Sports tourism, health and spa tourism, convention tourism, religious-pilgrimage tourism and agro tourism, are only a few of our thematic goals and we are in constant contact with the Regions of the country, in order to support their ideas as well as their initiatives.

At the same time we need to point out that the current achievements of Greek Tourism, being on the top of the world preference list, and its stable growth, are the result of collective efforts by the state and private sector. The fact that our country is listed among the 10 most visited destinations worldwide creates a great responsibility.

The tourism sector generates, directly and indirectly, more than 750.000 jobs and corresponds to more than 20% of the country’s GDP. It is a dynamic sector, which can decisively contribute to the development of the Greek economy. We estimate that the current season will close with a historical record of more than 25 million tourists and a revenue around 14.5 billion euros.

We do believe that this positive course will continue in the years to come. We just have to work collectively with faith and vision in order to put Greek Tourism to the place it deserves. The benefits from such a successful outcome will be visible and measurable for our economy, our society and our private sector.