We are currently experiencing a rebirth of environmentally conscious decision making, at least lots of entities are willing to compromise themselves with a clear agenda on the issue. As we are attending Philoxenia this year, we wanted to take the temperature on this issue within the context of Meeting & events in Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. So we invited Theodore Koumelis, co-organiser and responsible of hosted buyers program along with Helexpo, to express his opinion on the matter.....
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Ecotourism will drive the tourism future of Greece
Greece as a destination will develop an Eco- MICE sector for the emerging markets of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and the rest of the Balkan and East European market. Strong natural environment and unique locations are important incentives and springboard alternative to the usual Balkan MICE destinations. The so called Eco – Meetings are attracting small and medium size companies from the rest of Europe who have special concern about the preservation of the natural environment and the Greek destinations show a significant sensibility to the needs of those companies.
“The challenge of increasing the visitors’ numbers and tourism revenues of Greece is a bet we have to win,” explained Mr. Spiliotopoulos adding “this will be accomplished only through a whole new concept.”
This new concept rests on three new policies that are going to characterize the tourism strategy of Greece from now on; Quality and green tourism, investing in new technologies and giving a new brand image.
Quality that will come with a more environmental-friendly strategy will bring more benefits and will boost the Greek economy, according to the Greek Minister of Tourism Development. “We want people to visit our country again and again and this will be achieved only if we have quality in our services,” stressed the Minister.
The promotion through the new technologies and especially the internet are among the first priorities of the Tourism Ministry’s new marketing strategy. “We invest in the new technologies as we consider that tourism promotion via the web can increase visitor spend.”
Commenting on the strong seasonality of Greece Mr. Spiliotopoulos said “We have to overcome the Sea and Sun model that characterizes our country. That is why we invest in a new brand image for Greece.”
Based on the new ‘concept’ Mr. Spiliotopoulos expressed that the Ministry has already undertaken some initiatives towards this direction.
These are:
•Define specifications for founding theme parks.
•Reform the terms and conditions for the operation of the tourist trains.
•Define the criteria for the organized tourist camps and create a classification scheme for them.
•Create specifications for the mountain shelters facilities.
•Modify regulations that define hotelier-customer relationships.
•Revise the operation framework of the travel agencies.
•Conclude the religious and pilgrimage tourism framework.
•Give more access to people with disabilities and other special needs.
“We will work with all the Greek authorities that are related to our country’s tourism industry in order to make this new concept reality and to create a more viable future for all the people who depend on tourism,” concluded Mr. Spiliotopoulos.
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