“Our vision is the transition to a green sustainable model of tourism development” – Katerina Notopoulou, SYRIZA’s Minister of Tourism speaks to Margarita Manousou about tourism

Greek tourism has experienced spectacular growth in recent years. With a steady increase every year in arrivals and revenues, the country’s tourism figures have reached all-time highs, as a result of the national tourism policy pursued over the last five years, the tourism extroversion pursued and the significant contribution of the private sector and employees to the quality of the tourism product and services provided.

The challenge now is to maintain and strengthen this positive momentum for it to have multiplier effects, with a view to sustainable and equitable growth.

Tourism is not a narrow economic activity to be treated simply as numbers, percentages and revenues. The focus must be on people and that is why our vision is the transition to a green sustainable tourism development model that will ensure the competitiveness of the product and the qualitative upgrade of services in the modern digital world. At a global level, global challenges, centred on the new digital world and the climate crisis, are largely determining the behaviour of travellers.

The digital transformation of the industry is our immediate priority to serve the new generation of travellers who seek increased services, enriching existing service tools into an integrated high-frequency experience before, during and after the trip. On the other hand, climate change poses new challenges to which our country’s tourism policy must cope in order to preserve its tourism product and maintain its attractiveness and contribution to the national economy at high levels.

In this context, it becomes even more imperative to diversify the tourism product by developing new forms of alternative tourism and enriching it with new services and destinations, which will contribute to the extension of the tourist season. Because Greece, apart from the Sun and the Sea, has a wealth of untapped natural and cultural resources that offer huge potential for further development of sustainable forms of tourism.

The same applies to the reception of the increasing number of tourists with reduced mobility and special needs who should rightly be included in the offer of tourism services, implementing the objective of accessible tourism.

In all of the above, the role of Tourism Education and the cultivation of tourism culture through it, as well as the activation of all citizens who directly or indirectly contribute to the formation of our tourism profile, is extremely important.

The Greek tourism product is a national affair and for it to be sustainable, close cooperation is required from all those involved in its development. We are here to work with all our strengths in building partnerships towards sustainable – and therefore fair – tourism development.