“The regional airports have set a record with 31 million passengers, which shows that our strategy for better tourism throughout Greece has succeeded,” said Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias in an interview with the Open TV station, adding that for Athens tourism was this year the main source of funding, boosting citizens’ pockets, restaurants, cafes, museums and commerce.
Mr. Kikilias announced that the Bill that the Ministry of Tourism will bring to Parliament in the coming days provides for the establishment of an Hellenic Tourism Organization-EOT office in Melbourne – a strategic move that will significantly contribute to attracting travelers from Australia. “It is very important for us to add more markets, more dynamics in the country, so that we have travelers and tourists 12 months a year. This is the target, this effort is being aimed at. It is crucial, because as you understand it is on the other side of the planet, it is another continent. It has a significant Greek element – 300,000 Greek-Australians live in Melbourne – and it is a market that has finally opened up after two years of restrictive measures due to the pandemic,” he said.
What do reservations show?
Asked about the coming tourist season, the Minister of Tourism stated that the picture of pre-bookings shows that in 2023 Greece will also have a strong tourist stream, mentioning indicatively that 56 direct flights per week have already been announced from the USA and Canada to “El . Venizelos”, while others will have been added by spring.
Year-round tourism
Regarding tourists visiting Athens and popular destinations even in the heart of winter, he replied that this is a result of the strategy implemented for 12-month tourism and includes a network of initiatives and interventions, such as the EOT campaigns that now take place all 12 months of year, the promotion of the city break and the decision of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to allocate 20 million euros to airlines in order to carry out flights in the off season.
What Kikilias said about the elections
Regarding the upcoming elections, he said that their date does not affect tourism planning, as the start of the season in early March means that whenever the election is held, Greece will have tourists.
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