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Although tourism is one of the most important industries in our country, it
is currently at a very important juncture. The policy of the hard drachma that
the Greek government stubbornly and wrongly followed for a long time has greatly
damaged Greek tourism. Therefore, our reaction now must be immediate.
Political Spring believes that tourism should be under a strong ministry, but at
the same time be represented in the co-competent ministries for the upgrading of
the sector.
The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) needs an immediate and complete
modernization and restructuring of its structures. The leadership of the Greek
National Tourism Organization (GNTO) must be taken over by a technocrat with a
five-year term.
The proposal of the Political Spring is the establishment of an institute - the
Institute of Tourism Strategy - which will be staffed with the appropriate
technocrats and will be subordinate to the GNTO. This Institute will be able to
present proposals and propose measures to improve the competitiveness of Greek
Tourism.
The Political Spring considers it necessary to improve tourism education.
Tourism education must be continuous and extended to every Tourism worker either
in the form of seminars, training leaflets, or using the Mass Media.
The upgrading of tourism studies to higher education will substantially
contribute to the upgrading of the tourism industry.
The existing hotel infrastructure, and especially the small and medium-sized
units, must be modernized and improved as soon as possible.
Incentives should be given for the improvement of existing tourist units and
low-interest loans and grants should be given for the restoration of listed and
traditional buildings used as tourist units.
The new forms of tourism infrastructure (P.O.T.A. areas of integrated tourism
development) are not only a good investment, but also aim at the qualitative
upgrade of these areas.
The qualitative upgrade must be extended to other places, such as airports,
ports, etc. They are also the first places with which our foreign visitor comes
into contact.
Political Spring considers it necessary to build cultural, conference and sports
centers, mainly in the region, with the simultaneous organization of more
events, so that they become another pole of attraction for tourists.
The promotion and promotion of our culture abroad with a proper advertising
campaign is a special tourist incentive for our country.
The proper exploitation of our beaches and in particular the creation of marinas
and sports facilities will help to upgrade our tourism level.
The attraction of tourists of special interest is our main goal, such as marine,
mountainous, business, conference, sports and even religious.
In order to help the competitiveness of our tourism package, the Political
Spring proposes a reduction of employer-labor contributions to the social
security funds by 25% for tourism businesses, thus offering a reduction in
payroll costs by about 7%.
A significant reduction in the cost of tourism businesses will also be brought
about by the proposal of the Political Spring to reduce VAT by half for a
specific period of time (e.g. five years).
In order for our tourism policy to succeed and to emerge from the crisis, the
state and private individuals must cooperate consistently and decisively in the
radical changes required by both the needs of our country and the trends of the
global market.
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