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By Dimitris
Yannopoulos
A wind of change is gathering pace
in one of Greece’s oldest public supervisory
bodies in the country. After a long period of inertia
and bureaucratic complacency, the Greek National
Tourism Organization (GNTO) is forging ahead with
a coherent campaign to revitalize the local hospitality
industry and promote its new image abroad.
"This is the first time that
we see a full-fledged, worldwide promotion campaign
for Greek tourism launched at the start of the year
rather than in May," says Yiannis Evangelou,
president of the Hellenic Association of Tourist
and Travel Agencies (HATT). "There is a lot
of lost ground to be covered but the new GNTO leadership
headed by Aristidis Kalogeropoulos-Stratis has given
us encouraging signs that they mean business."
Evangelou was referring to the fact
that the establishment of an autonomous Ministry
of Tourism has allowed its executive arm, the GNTO,
to take a more active role in matters of sectoral
policy.
On the one hand, the sum of $100 million was allotted
to the new ministry to cover the sector’s increased
publicity needs for 2005. The amount is nearly three
times the capital spent by the GNTO in its ill-fated
2004 promotion activities which failed to take advantage
of the country’s image as an Olympics organizer.
On the other hand, the GNTO swiftly
carried out the tender for the 2005 publicity campaign
in November, insisting that the selected PR bidder
should launch the campaign at the start of the year
instead of mid-year as was happening up to now.
When the chosen PR firm refused to guarantee a timely
start for its proposed publicity drive before the
end of April, the GNTO took full charge of the promotional
campaign.
No-nonsense
approach
The new GNTO campaign operates under
the slogan "Live your myth in Greece"
and has been in full swing since January in all
the major tourist markets around the world whilst
pre-booking negotiations with local hoteliers and
tour operators are already swelling. "For the
first time in four years we can safely predict an
annual growth rate of around 10 percent this year,"
says Evangelou.
Evangelou’s relief at the GNTO’s
no-nonsense approach is shared by many business
representatives in the sector who look back with
dismay to four consecutive years of unprecedented
stagnation in Greek tourism, despite the hundreds
of millions of euros invested by the private sector
for the renovation of major hotels and resorts around
the country ahead of the Olympics.
The expected increase in bookings
during and immediately after the Athens Games never
materialized, with sluggish island bookings and
even hotels in the capital left with spare vacancies.
At the end of 2004 the sector recorded an annual
slide in revenues of five percent coupled with a
two percent drop in the number of arrivals, a disappointing
performance for one of the world’s 15 most
popular holiday destinations in its moment of glory
as host of the Olympic Games.
The poor results were widely blamed
on the strong euro, excessive fears of terrorism
during the Games, bad publicity and the lack of
an effective advertising campaign.
Imperatives
of recovery
"Many things went wrong during
the Olympic preparations as far as tourism is concerned,"
says GNTO secretary-general Harry Coccossis. "But
these flaws cannot solely be blamed on malpractices
of local operators or the lack of initiatives and
organizational shortcomings of the previous GNTO
administrations," he added. "Above, all
the failure to capitalize on the Olympic achievements
has exposed some deep-seated structural and institutional
weaknesses that hold back the sector from realizing
its full potential."
Coccossis refers to the extreme "seasonality"
of Greek tourism, with more than 60 percent of arrivals
concentrated in the two months of the peak summer
season. This generates a vicious circle of dependency
on low-budget mass-tourism where price competition
between alternative country destinations is steeper.
Up until now, long-term investment
in diversification of tourist services and qualitative
facility improvements were hampered by institutional
obstacles and red tape.
"We need to pursue deep institutional
and qualitative changes in our tourism industry
so as to consolidate Greece’s status as one
of the world’s most popular destinations,"
says Tourist Development Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.
"As a government, we have already taken the
first steps, with a view to creating a hospitable
and friendly environment for large-scale investments
in the sector but also developing a focused, long-term
strategy for the effective promotion of Greek tourism."
A former diplomat and mayor of Athens,
Avramopoulos believes that the elevation of the
tourism portfolio from the status of a secretariat
to that of an autonomous ministry entails new powers
and responsibilities for the GNTO. The latter’s
extensive network of offices at home and abroad
will play a key role in the implementation of tourist
policy, especially in the field of marketing and
promotional campaigns.
First established in 1927 as a semi-official
tourist information bureau, the GNTO was reconstituted
in 1951 as the principal state agency for the tourist
sector. But its functions and duties varied widely
over the years as the organization was constantly
shifted around and failed to meet the necessary
jurisdiction of various ministries.
Reorganization
for efficiency
The GNTO’s regulatory and supervisory
role in the observance of accommodation standards
was often combined with management responsibilities
for sprawling state-run hotel chains, public real
estate, beaches or marinas. Parallel to this, the
GNTO sponsored cultural events for the holiday season
while coordinating tourist publicity, PR and marketing
abroad.
"The combination of extensive
and ever-changing responsibilities with limited
actual authority and scope for innovation has naturally
impeded GNTO’s effectiveness and flexibility,"
says Stavros Andreadis, chairman of the Association
of Tourist Enterprises. "There are state functions
which the GNTO can fulfill with relative ease, like
quality control, market research, tourist information
services and promotion. But state property or hotel
management, professional training or the planning
of cultural events during the holiday season should
be carried out by independent agencies."
Under the new legal framework governing the tourism
ministry, the GNTO structure reflects a twin-pronged
focus on its supervisory and promotional roles.
The organization is divided into
two general directorates, one for Development and
another for Promotion, while a third component comprises
the GNTO’s network of local, regional and foreign-based
offices, falling under the aegis of the Promotion
Directorate.
The GNTO Development Directorate
includes departments engaged in research and planning,
the promotion of new forms of tourism, quality control
and market supervision, tourist facility evaluation,
urban planning and environmental policy.
The Promotion Directorate covers
the areas of marketing and publicity, advertisement
campaigns, conventions, roadshows and exhibitions,
publications and audio-visual media. A separate
department within the Promotion Directorate supervises
the GNTO’s foreign services (including an expanding
network of GNTO offices in more than 20 countries)
and PR activities.
"The new administrative structure
of the GNTO reflects its main priorities as the
principal advisory, research and planning body for
the Ministry of Tourism and other government ministries
or local authorities," said Coccossis. "The
focus is on the formulation of long-term tourist
development strategy and the efficient implementation
of policy for the benefit of the hospitality sector
and the Greek economy as a whole."
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Greece 
