Positive signals for tourism in 2022, as he said from Heraklion, the Deputy Minister of State for Tourism, Sofia Zacharaki, who participated in a workshop held in cooperation with the Heraklion Hotel Association and the «ELLA-DIKA MAS» initiative, focusing on the link between the hospitality economy and the economy of production.
Ms Zacharaki said she is optimistic and that hoteliers and tour operators are giving very encouraging data. «Those who have the pulse of the first pre-bookings are telling us that are increased by 30%, while the number of bookings has also increased significantly. The messages are very optimistic from our traditional markets such as England, Germany and France, but of course we do not stop to claim new markets, »said the Deputy Minister of Tourism who expressed her concern for travelers from Russia and Ukraine, against the background of developments, explaining that tourism is affected by international developments.
He also referred to the change in preferences in the post-covid era shown by travellers, which requires - as he stressed - a ten-year strategic plan.
«The Ministry of Tourism and with the label visitable winery and with the label visitable brewery, cheese factory and olive mill -which was passed in December and will soon be put into practice through KYA- will enhance the ability of businesses for visitability, which will increase and revenue in the retail sector and will also enrich the visitor experience. We are continuing with the wine tourism conferences, one of the next conferences will be in Crete, and a site is being created which will include all the wineries that can be visited and have the tourism label,» said Mrs. Zacharaki, adding that a National Wine Tourism Council is being promoted.
He also noted that 17 million from the Recovery Fund will go to the agri-tourism and gastronomy sector. «Through a special destination management agency that will help the local government, always with a public-private partnership, this type of cooperation can be promoted,» he said, noting that a ten-year strategic plan is being formed that has already been presented to the Prime Minister, «so that we can talk about a golden decade in terms of the sustainability of Greek tourism, when Greece will be a leading player»
