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I
n 2011, Greek tourism added one and a half
percentage points to the country’s GDP, con-
taining its contraction to 5.5% and creat-
ing/preserving 100,000 jobs. As a result, despite
the huge problems it has been facing, Greek
tourism saw significant year-on-year growth in
2011. In fact, based on data released by the Bank
of Greece, there was a 10% increase in both
tourist revenues and international arrivals, which
reached almost 16.5 million tourists, hitting a new
record. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily
reflected on the tourist enterprises' cash flow.
Tourist enterprises, especially in the centre of
Athens and those parts of the country that mainly
attract local tourists, saw their revenues plunge.
As far as tourist enterprises that cater to inbound
tourism are concerned, any increase in revenues
was wiped out by the rise in operating costs, the
imposition of extraordinary taxes, and the
increase in borrowing costs.
A huge effort, proper measures in the tourist sec-
tor, as well as positive developments for the coun-
try as a whole – these are the prerequisites for
repeating our positive growth rates in 2012.
Greece is a mature tourist economy; therefore it
must offer tourism products and services to all
socioeconomic strata. The challenge is to provide
value-for-money on all levels. In the forthcoming
years, the Greek tourism portfolio should empha-
Trade with Greece
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During this unprecedented crisis that our country is
now facing, tourism is the only sector of the Greek
economy, along with exports, which showed positive
results, precisely thanks to its extrovert nature.
Greece remains one of
the most beautiful and
desirable countries in
the world
By Andreas Andreadis,
President of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE)