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Monday, 01 December 2008



Greece’s Tourism Industry to Face Tough Times in 2009, Despite Successes in 2007



BalkanTravellers.com   

9 October 2008 | Next year will be a difficult one for tourism in Greece, Minister of Culture Aris Spiliotopoulos told national media recently, and called on local tour agencies to look for ways to attract more tourists.

Tour agencies should focus on new markets and put an accent on countries like Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and China, Spiliotopoulos stated, quoted by the Naftemporiki newspaper. He also added that his ministry has developed a strategic plan for attracting more tourists from the US, Great Britain and Germany.

At the same time, the Greek Imersia newspaper published data, according to which 2007 will end up being a successful one for Greek tourism, as about 17 million people are expected to have visited the country by the end of the year.

A growth in classical tourism, organised by tourist agencies, and an increase in online bookings and travel offers that allow clients to organise their own itineraries was noted by experts, quoted in the publication.

It is expected that a new system for hotel categorisation will be introduced in Greece soon, the media also noted.

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