Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni spoke at the third edition of the UNESCO World Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries taking place in Florence, Italy from 2 to 4 October and stressed the need for collective actions to promote sustainable development, raising awareness about environmental issues and the preservation and promotion of local cultural.

The forum, organized in cooperation with the Italian Government and with the support of the Tuscany Region and the Municipality of Florence, aims to illustrate the potential of creativity, innovation and expertise to nourish cultural industries.

Ms. Kefalogianni said that the majority of tourists today want to visit regions with high environmental quality and strong elements of local culture.

She also stressed that tourism development “should be based on criteria of sustainability and respect for the natural and human environment”.

On Greece, she said it was everyone’s duty is to highlight the great cultural wealth inherited, referring to museums with unique artifacts, archaeological sites and monuments of exceptional beauty and Byzantine churches which all together form a unique mosaic that starts in antiquity and ends up in modern Greece.