Where is Greek tourism in terms of sustainability

The Institute of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (INSETE) talks about the need to integrate sustainability and resilience in the planning and management of the tourism sector.

The reason was the ranking of Greece and competing countries, in the Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021 of the World Economic Forum, presented in a study by the Institute of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (INSETE).

According to the results of the survey, Greece is ranked 28th in the Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021, in the same position where it was ranked in 2019.

Among the competing countries, the best place is occupied by Spain in 3rd place, followed by France in 4th, Italy in 10th and Portugal in 16th place.

Turkey is several places below Greece, in 45th place, followed by Croatia in 46th place.

The actions

According to INSETE, the improvement of Greece’s position in the ranking could be achieved by adopting a series of actions such as the following:

-Strengthening digital transformation and digitization of services while educating the population to ensure rapid adoption of technology

-Education, training, adoption of new practices in the labor market that will contribute to increasing productivity in the hotel, catering and transport industry

-Increasing the connectivity of Greece in the global aviation network

-Strengthening the strategic promotion of the Greece destination brand

-Strengthening the road network (excluding motorways) with more, well-constructed roads and road safety improvement interventions of the existing network

-Promoting public transport access

-Increase of registered natural world heritage monuments in Greece

-Increase of registered cultural monuments of world heritage in Greece

-Protection and promotion of cultural heritage, as well as preservation and enhancement of traditional practices, techniques and knowledge

-Targeted actions to highlight and promote alternative forms of tourism

-Limitation of pollutants, proper wastewater treatment, protection and promotion of the natural environment

-Improving the quality of life in cities and urban centers

-Targeted distribution of tourists to relieve congestion in saturated tourist areas, the expansion of the tourist season, the increase of the length of stay.