Olympia Anastasopoulou’s speech at Naftemporiki’s London’s World Travel Market 2022 event

Following her successfull speech at the 96th Propeller Club event in Athens, we convey you here under in free of charge translation the speech of Olympia Anastasopoulou, Greece’s Secretary-Typical of Tourism Plan and Development, Ministry of Tourism held at Greece’s stand at the WM 2022 in london’s ExCel and we also we consist of at the finish the Greek text*

Dear Girls, Dear Gentlemen,
Initial of all, particular many thanks to Naftemporiki for the invitation, a newspaper that because 1924 has been a pioneer in worldwide collaborations, very first in circulation and readership among the the fiscal newspapers of Greece, awarded with the Grand Ermis and Ermis Gold in the Ideal class Media Site , though offering its subscribers additional than 30 unique ( B 2 B ) editions a yr. A newspaper acknowledged for its seriousness and creditworthiness, which sets the bar large when it arrives to news and in-depth analysis of occasions.

I would also like to choose this opportunity to wish Mr. Spyros Ktenas, Naftemporikis’ Typical Supervisor and his colleagues, every single achievements in their new enterprise, the English-language exclusive edition ” Treasures of Greek Tourism “, as perfectly as their debut participation in this year’s Entire world Journey Sector London 2022.

Dear close friends,
I am delighted and honored to be with you today at EOT’s new and modern-day stand which contains crucial improvements and is more functional for the two guests and exhibitors.

Innovation, sustainability and an emphasis on electronic media are the main pillars of our tactic which are also mirrored in the new architecture of the stands.

We are moving ahead, renewing and intensifying our endeavours, not only for 2023, but also for the subsequent working day of Greece’s tourism in its entirety.

As you know, tourism was a supply of optimism for the foreseeable future of the Greek financial state for the duration of the difficult decades of the memorandums imposed, while it is now also the motor vehicle of recovery for the significant and long lasting growth class of our country, in order to generate lasting prosperity both of those for our country and its citizens.

In certain, tourism, the dynamic restoration of which this calendar year might go to concentrations larger than those people of 2019, results in expectations for bigger advancement than predicted, as primarily based on estimates of its secondary, indirect positive aspects in other sectors of the overall economy, and similar is calculated to generate in 2022 up to 52.89 billion for the gross domestic solution, furnished of training course that no remarkable occasions with adverse influence come up.

These estimates are embraced by huge international banking entities, this sort of as HSBC and Lender of The usa , with the former upgrading its forecast for Greek expansion this 12 months to 6.5{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} from 4{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} previously and the latter also speaking about a important favourable effect.

It is also really worth noting that a exploration by Grant Thornton and the Hotel Chamber of Greece reveals that the benefits of tourism spread to 17 branches of economic activity and 9 sectors of the Greek economy, like the principal a single.

Women and Gentlemen,
The imprint of the will need for a new design of sustainable tourism, which will follows the concepts set by the World Tourism Corporation, ” journey , enjoy , regard ” but also assist that, similar will count on and aid human life at the exact time, it is in this article to keep.

The outcomes of Sars Cov 2 in the journey sector, have now clearly shown that a national coverage for tourism have to automatically blend:
a) Companies and strategies, which respect the country’s special pure wealth and local identity, throughout the journey knowledge.
b) Attracting dependable site visitors at a steadily rising fee, including the bearing ability of destinations.
Sustainable tourism is not only a will need for the earth and our country, it is also the standard affliction in order to advantage from the funds of the European Recovery and Resilience Money.

And to be crystal clear, as policymakers, we contemplate tourism a strategic sector that can draw in long-phrase international expenditure, stimulate employment and market the country’s regional growth.

For the federal government, this sector is at the heart of improvement, innovation, and extroversion.
As the major goals of the national tourism policy, we have established the lengthening of the tourist time, the advancement of the competitiveness, quality, authenticity and durability of the vacationer merchandise and, at the identical time, the strengthening of vacationer investments with a small environmental footprint.

Our priority is a systemic shift towards a extra sustainable tourism economic system that works equally for modern society and the natural environment. To this stop we have a powerful commencing base, as Greece is ranked 25th out of 140 international locations in the 2019 Vacation and Tourism Competitiveness Index of the Earth Economic Discussion board ( WEF ).

Also, on unique indicators, Greece is ranked 13th for its health and cleanliness, 18th for air transport infrastructure and 18th for its tourism company infrastructure.

The Sustainable Advancement Goals (SDGs) are essential to the restoration top to greener, more inclusive economies and more robust, more resilient societies.

We now have the opportunity to speed up sustainable growth and that is why the central will of the Ministry of Tourism is to step by step comply with the SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda, integrating them into the nationwide tourism coverage and developing a national analysis system to observe the development of its implementation…

Precisely, the broad range of interventions to fortify the resilience and sustainability of tourism involves the development of Desired destination Management and Promotion Organizations ( DMMOs ) in Planet Class Greek Tourism Locations as pilot systems, the advancement of licensing, certification and start off-up operations for tourism enterprises and infrastructure similar to tourism of unique interest, as properly as improving upon knowledge administration.

Dear good friends,
According to worldwide surveys, the pandemic brought about a radical transformation in the code of modern-day values. As a consequence, a new landscape is emerging in international tourism, with a new type of traveler having centre stage.

Large dimensions are set aside, the modern tourist returns to the principles of evaluate and stability. After the experience of Covid, values this sort of as security, health, in general well-staying, correct nutrition, defense of the planet are strengthened far more and projected as vital requires.

For tourism info, the higher than translates to: additional and more vacationers will be seeking new destinations, non-huge, alternate, which will regard the stability with the natural environment and have substantial-high-quality hospitality infrastructure, even though featuring the traveler a feeling of safety, with no depriving him of the magic of vacation.

Immediately after all, the trend that is rising as definitely dominant for the coming years is the search for locations that can offer their visitors one of a kind, reliable and experiential experiences.

The expertise financial state, which experienced previously appeared dynamically in the intercontinental tourism scene, will be the spearhead in the coming years.

Using into account these new, global traits, as very well as the a variety of scientific tests and researches of Greek and Worldwide institutes and businesses, the system of Greek tourism presupposes qualified development by a methodical, substantial, impressive, electronic and environmentally friendly style and design in a framework of sustainability and resilience.

The 5 axes for the growth of Greek tourism generally worry the subsequent fields:
– The enhancement and enhancement of public – generally- infrastructures
– The upgrading, innovation and advertising of the tourist solution
– The digital enhance and transformation of the tourism ecosystem
– Environmental safety and sustainability, as well
– The strengthening of expertise and the advancement of entrepreneurship.

At the very same time, the Greek Condition thoroughly examines several megatrends this sort of as hypertourism, the sharing economy, social and demographic improvements, emerging locations, stability and crisis management.
In Greece the traveler can take pleasure in numerous ordeals in a genuinely holistic way, inscribed in his body, soul and thoughts. A person could say that the historic Greek life-style is returning as a modern day demand from customers of the new age.

This is how we get gain of the craze of Millennials , a incredibly dynamic audience, to history specific, one of a kind vacation experiences, as well as the new tradition of distant do the job ( distant doing work ), the evolution of which looks to be “digital nomadism” ( electronic nomads ).

It is observed that Greek tourism, whilst being asked to align its model with the digital operation and the ecological product, has, in addition to a authorities that is continuously modernizing the point out, several more provides, these as:
– The Greek brand name is in the leading five worldwide,
– has a large distribute in its markets,
– it moves within the incomparable purely natural and cultural landscape of our region, the exploitation of which constitutes a distinctive comparative gain.

So, we do not absence insurance policies, nor methods. It is also regarded that the Countrywide Restoration Program directs large resources in direction of the digital and eco-friendly transformation of businesses, while the credits from the new NSRF are also critical, with the exact same purpose.

In the long run, it is up to us to acquire advantage of this powerful economical lever to just take and make the terrific leap into the future, as the Key Minister lately talked about, so that we obtain (a) lowering our environmental footprint, (b) addressing of “hyper-tourism” with new infrastructures and clever movement administration, (c) sustainable tactics which will also problem area communities and of study course (d) the generation of option places for all the 12 months of the yr.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In the coming many years, we will all be known as on to adapt to fashionable needs and new priorities. At the Ministry of Tourism we feel that with synergies and partnerships we have the ability to shape the agenda for the accurate transformation of tourism and the changeover to the upcoming day.
So let us concentrate on every little thing that can make us optimistic for a greater potential. Offered, however, that we have done our most effective in the current.
Thank you.

The text of her speech in Greek: