Minister sees no problem for tourism as another general strike hits Athens.
Tuesday, 11 Mar, 2010
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Greek culture and tourism minister Angela Gerekou has downplayed a general strike which hit Athens today.
Speaking today at ITB in Berlin, she said that strikes happen somewhere in Europe every day.
Today’s strike in Greece was ‘only one day’ so she saw no damage to the all important travel industry in the country.
In fact her main target was to "remind everyone that tourism in Greece was not affected but the much publicised economic and labour difficulties but, on the contrary, these problems have allowed Greece to become more attractive to the visitor."
Prices in Greece have been falling for some time whilst quality has been rising so the visitor has benefitted, she said.
Depite this, arrival figures released by the minister today show a drop in hotel arrivals for foreign visitors of some 5% whilst bed nights have dropped by around 9% up to the end of the 2009 summer season.
"We are not just a country full of problems and nothing else," said the minister as she announced a new campaign based on the Greek greeting ‘kalimera’ which represented not just a welcome to a friend but, a new world, a new begining fror Greek tourism.
Depite the economic problems she said that there would be continuing investment in infrastructure with 20 new marinas to be built, along with a new congress centre for Athens and continuing public and private investment in hotels.
In highlighting the new Acropolis Museum and this year’s Golden Marathon event, the minister said that these demonstrated a good tourim investment policy.
Looking to the future, she wanted everyone to know that all investment in Greek tourism had to be environmnetally sensitive.
Tourism has a great future in Greece said Gerekou but it is an ecologically sound and a green future.
by John Bell
Phil Davies
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