The first large and innovative conference entitled, “Greece Talks, the Role of Tourism in the Future of Greece”, organized at the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center by Travel.gr, the most visited travel site in Greece, and Proto Thema took place on Thursday morning.

Androniki Kolovou, director of Travel.gr, talked about the tourism promotion actions with over 60 missions throughout Greece, with Greek and British travel editors and travel bloggers. As she said, this year Greece had its best performance in tourism, which is why the conference acquires a special importance.

Fotis Tsimelas, content manager of the “Proto Thema” group, refered to the goals of the conference. “Greece Talks” is a mosaic of small achievements that inspire us and big successes, he stated, welcoming the Prime Minister and the guests.

(L-R Journalist Antonis Sroiter, the owner of Proto Thema Mr. Karamitsos and the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis)

The Prime Minister noted at the “Greece Talks” conference that Greece had no losses in the tourism sector from the war in Ukraine and he hopes the same for the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, spoke about the course of tourism in Greece. Specifically, as he said during a discussion moderated by journalist Antonis Schroiter, in which Achilleas Konstantakopoulos, President of T.E.MES SA, Eftychios Vassilakis, President of AEGEAN, and Odysseas Athanasios, CEO of LAMDA Development, said that the lifeblood of tourism is private initiative.

Specifically, he said that tourism is a need for people to travel, noting that the unique experiences of Greek tourism are the differentiating element.

Referring to the war conflicts in the wider geopolitical neighborhood, the war in Ukraine did not affect Greek tourism and the same will happen with the flare-up of conflicts in the Middle East.

“It is wrong to count only the number of visitors, what counts is the financial footprint,” he said pointing out that we should not relax.

It is important, as he said, that each visitor who comes to the country spends more in the country. The Prime Minister stressed that Greek tourism should meet the highest levels of sustainability. “I insist very much that we should be very concerned about the competitiveness of our product”, he said.

Afterwards, Mr. Mitsotakis said that “we are not alone in this world, and we should be concerned with competitiveness in all aspects of tourism. However, it is a strategic choice to aim for the high product”. At the same time, he noted that it is important that the most attractive destinations become accessible as early in the year as possible. “Not many people come primarily for the culture and this is untapped capital”, he said and specifically referred to winter tourism saying that it is a huge capital that remains untapped.

Recalling his recent trip to China, he said that it is important to follow the same example as the US in China and India with daily flights and Greece should invest in it. “There will be many opportunities, we are concerned with competitiveness and sustainability”, he emphasized. “This means, of course,” he said “that this also means cooperation in the small ones”, shedding light to the role of the local government in this effort as well.