(ANSAmed) – ATHENS, 24 NOV – “Greece’s strategy is to expand
the destinations people would want to visit across the country,
and to encourage tourists to explore Greece not just in summer,
but winter too,” ANSAmed was told Thursday by Angela Gerekou,
president of the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO).
Gerekou noted that, “in our new campaigns – ‘Greece has a
winter too’, is the slogan – we are make it very clear that
Greece is not just sun and beaches, and it’s not only the
islands. We have also beautiful beaches in northern Greece, and
western Greece” that almost no one is aware of.
She also stressed that, “now in GNTO our main target is to
promote” such lesser-known areas of the country.
“There’s plenty of beauty to be found in Greece, no matter
where you are in the country. Greece can be always in season,”
she said.
The current year looks set to end on a positive note, she
adds, surpassing pre-pandemic 2019.
“We still have tourism till December,” she pointed out.
“Greek tourism is heading for an excellent year, supporting
public revenue, despite inflationary pressures worldwide and
the environment of high uncertainty that has emerged following
the energy crisis.”
According to Gerekou, Greece is setting a new record for
tourism between the months of October and December.
“Revenues for 2022 have already surpassed the 18.2 billion
euros generated in 2019. At the moment, Greece is set to have
earned around nineteen billion euros for the current year,” she
added, noting that many Italian tourists continue to visit the
country.
Gerekou then outlined GNTO’s main priorities for the
immediate future, with a focus on 2023.
“For Greece, our primary production and cultural heritage are
huge “national funds”, which also strengthen and enrich the
Hospitality Economy. At the Ministry of Tourism and the GNTO, we
give special emphasis to mixing Greek Hospitality, Food and
Culture as organically as we can. Highlighting this triptych is
a priority for us,” she said.
“In this context,” she added, “last April, on my own
initiative, we organized the “1st Symposium Greece the Country
of EF ZIN: the sustainable Economy of Hospitality in connection
with the Greek Diet and Culture”.
“The whole country offers a huge variety of experiences,
that strengthen and rejuvenate the body, spirit and soul of the
visitor,” she continued.
“EF ZIN (which refers essentially to physical and spiritual
wellbeing) is the ancient Greek philosophy and way of living
that empowers body, mind and soul. Translated into the needs of
the modern man, EF ZIN is the good nutrition – the Greek
Mediterranean diet – exercising close to nature, the
rejuvenation at sea and in our thermal springs, cultivation and
empowerment of the spirit, positive thoughts, respect for one
another, respect for the environment, and to the future
generations,” she wrote.
Among the attractions in 2023, she noted, in addition to
traditional events such as the festival of Athens and Epidaurus,
the city of Eleusis – next year’s “Cultural Capital of Europe”
(the complete program is at https://2023eleusis.eu/) – is
turning into a new tourist destination.
Many people from across Europe are expected to “inundate the
historic city of Western Attica next year”, she added.
“Eleusis, as one of the five Holy Cities of antiquity,
possesses rare archaeological wealth. The temple of Demeter and
Persephone, the entrance of the Underworld at the Plutonium, the
Caryatids of the Propylaea and the solid walls create one of the
most remarkable archaeological sites in Greece,” she concluded.
(ANSAmed).
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