Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni addressed the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) General Assembly on Monday, outlining the reforms introduced by a new draft bill prepared by her ministry.
“It is a new and significant reform effort. It comes as a follow-up to our legislative initiative last year. It proves that tourism is a field for exercising serious and concerted reforms. It also shows our readiness to legislate, to response to needs and plan the future. The tourism ministry wants to always to follow international developments in the tourism sector,” Kefalogianni said.

The minister explained that the new draft law sought to upgrade the quality of services provided by the ministry and the national tourism office EOT, simplify procedures for tourist accommodation and the smooth development of enterprise. Focusing on the major changes being attempted, she said that there was a review of the issue of special operating signs for all tourist accommodation and measures covering more complex tourism accommodation, hotels with joint ownership and tourism infrastructure.

She also stressed the need for a major overhaul of EOT to turn it into a modern organisation for promoting Greece’s tourism product, with a clearcut remit, less bureaucracy, greater flexibility and better results.
“Our aim is to release all the creative strengths of the organisation, so that it operates on the terms demanded by the global tourism market,” she said, noting that the aim was to make EOT more flexible and able to cooperate with the private sector, serving the public’s interest and respecting tax payers’ money.

She also announced the start of cooperation between the HCH and the ministry to activate a system that will provide accurate data regarding the tourism entering and leaving Greece, whose aim is to constantly monitor and evaluate tourism policy through the flow of statistical data.