The Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Rural Development & food of the Hellenic Republic, the Embassy of Greece in Prague, and the Greek National Tourism Organization organized a workshop for professionals to promote tourism to Greece.
After a morning full of B2B meetings, H.E. Mr. Athanassios Paressoglou, Ambassador of Greece greeted the guests. Here are selected sections of the Ambassador’s speech.
Distinguished guests, I want to congratulate the organizers for this important initiative which brought together tourism businessmen of our two countries this morning to further enhance our bilateral cooperation in this sector. In a few minutes will follow presentations of the amazing landscapes and the big tourism potential of some of our beautiful regions, namely Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Central Macedonia, and last but not least the island of Crete.
Dear guests, allow me to point out that the tourism sector, as a strong pillar of Greece’s economy has made huge progress during the last years. Thanks to the great climate, the variety of the landscapes, the steadily improved infrastructures, and the extension of the tourism season, Greece offers nowadays numerous attractions and various types of alternative tourism such as cultural, religious, medical, gastronomic, or conferential tourism.
I would also like to highlight that Greece has been a very popular destination in recent years for Czech tourists. Particularly last year, according to the available data, more than 640,000 tourists from Czechia visited Greece, traveling by plane or by car. This marks a significant increase of approximately 30% compared to the previous year.
In conclusion let me point out that our Embassy, in constructive cooperation with other competent institutions, mainly with the Greek National Tourism Organization (EOT), works to promote Greek tourism in the Czech Republic and is always at your disposal to support you.
After the Ambassador Mrs. Nikoletta Nikolopoulou – Director of the Greek National Tourism Organization office of Poland and the Czech Republic greeted the guest, adding very useful data about tourism between the 2 countries. A very interesting presentation was given by Dr. Kyriakos Kotsoglou – Vice Governor of Create and Mrs. Eleni Vougioukalaki – Head of the tourism department.