The importance of Greek tourism, as an industry that directly and indirectly employs one in six workers and contributes a fifth of the country’s GDP, cannot be more apparent. Despite the difficult circumstances that the industry faced during 2015, by the end of the year, Greek tourism will manage to reach the targets for 26 million international arrivals and 14,5 billion Euros in direct receipts.
The next few years will be critical for safeguarding the competitiveness of the industry and enhancing the quality of the Greek tourism product. In collaboration with all the relative tourism authorities, SETE has already shared with the state a comprehensive development plan, the 2021 Strategic Roadmap for Greek Tourism. Now, that Greece is at a crucial crossroad, it is important to create and implement a framework of activities to tackle over-taxation, tax-evation and support the State to the implementation of the relevant reforms.
SETE’s two significant arms, Marketing Greece, a body established to represent and promote tourism throughout Greece, and the Institute of SETE, which provides scientific and technical support in the promotion, training and quality of entrepreneurship in the tourism sector, will continue to give a voice to local communities and industries and will continue helping to represent the country in a fresh and innovative way, with research and clearly defined goals.
We are supporting the Greek Government in all possible ways and we will continue to contribute to the Greek economy with all of our strength.