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Can you
tell us about recent efforts by the GNTO and Ministry
of Tourism to court Hollywood as part of promoting
Greek tourism?
As an expression of cultural and
artistic creativity and as a commercial product,
the film industry today constitutes one of the world’s
most important industries. It is well-known that
competition between countries to attract film production
to their territories is intense since the profits
and numerous benefits which accrue are major indeed.
We hope to entice film executives to shoot their
productions in various urban, rural, island or other
locations throughout the country with the overriding
aim of developing the economy and, in particular,
bolstering the Greek tourism industry. We recently
visited Hollywood with that objective in mind. The
previous administration made little effort to accommodate
foreign film initiatives here, so one of the reasons
for our visit was to show film executives that we
are back in business and that this time we mean
business. We received positive feedback from those
we met and at present there are plans to make two
films in Greece.
What
steps have been taken to address the bureaucratic
hurdles which have discouraged foreign investors
in tourism in the past?
We have taken special measures to
fight all the problems that were hindering investment
in Greek tourism in the past. Several of our services
in the tourism sector have been reformed specifically
to better accomodate prospective investors. Development
proposals, which were held back for many years,
have been implemented through a series of new measures
and we can now demonstrate serious progress against
bureaucracy.
Are there
plans to further develop and upgrade the golf industry
in Greece?
We realize that golfing is a massive
industry, unfortunately, in the past practically
no investments had taken place in Greece. It is
our intention to change that and fast. We plan to
upgrade Greece’s existing golf industry and
to further develop the sector. There is no reason
why in ten years Greece could not be in the same
category as Spain – a major European golfing
destination. We have the land, climate, skills and
drive to achieve this.
What
policies are being pursued to entice more visitors
from the United States?
Attracting visitors from the US is
a high priority for the GNTO and Ministry of Tourism.
US visitors tend to expect a very high quality of
provision of services. With this in mind, we are
taking certain measures to meet the expectations
of the American market.
Firstly, we are planning to open
new Greek tourist offices in all the major US cities,
such as Miami. In addition we will re-open our offices
in Los Angeles and Chicago. Secondly, we are promoting
an advertising campaign [Live Your Myth in Greece]
for the first time in the States through various
mediums including television and the subways. Finally,
as I mentioned before, we recently visited New York
and Los Angeles with the purpose of attracting the
Hollywood film Industry.
The American tourism market is under
a transition period, for this reason we are taking
extreme care to implement sound policies that will
aid us to build a solid long-term plan and relationship,
rather then a short-term plan that will yield transient
results.
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Greece 
