ATHENS: Greece the sixth most visited country by tourists in the European Union, can bring the travel industry to a whole new level if it pours more resources into it, and if the state removes the barriers that prevent the entry of new capital, according to the President of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Yiannis Retsos.
Although nearly 30 million tourists, visiting Greece from May to September, is a huge figure, it can reach 40 million for a period of 9 months if the tourist season is extended”, said Yiannis Retsos. “We must enrich the tourist product and have added value that will attract maybe not more but richer tourists to have more proceeds”, added he.
Tourism is the largest Greek industry and the number of tourists has increased by 10% yoy in 2017 to 27.2 million people, generating revenues of just over 14.5 billion EUR, according to data from the Greek Central bank. Tourism has contributed 32.8 billion EUR to Greece’s GDP in 2016, or 18.6%. The analysts expects this share to reach 23.8% in 2017.
“To raise number of tourists to 36 million and revenue to 20 billion EUR by 2021, Greece needs investments worth 6 billion EUR per year”, said Yiannis Retsos. “Although this is a large figure, there is an external interest in investment”, added he.
The state must improve infrastructure such as ports, yacht ports and local airports to create added value, mainly for the Greek islands. According to Greek Tourism Confederation, the infrastructure on the islands is still in the 1960s and there is a need to repair sewer and water supply systems.
