Greek Tourism Minister pushes sea development investments at Posidonia

Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, speaking at the Posidonia conference, urged businesses operating in sea tourism development to explore the potential for investments in Greece.

She pointed to the development of the port of Piraeus by the Chinese company Cosco – which her ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party had opposed while out of power but embraced once in office – and privatizations of airports it also didn’t want as examples that could work with more development of the maritime tourism sector, the Athens News Agency reported.

Focusing on the government’s strategy for tourism 365 days a year, Kountoura said that maritime tourism is particularly important and last year brought in 3.3 million visitors.

As she spoke, the newspaper Kathimerini reported that many cruise liners visiting Greece face long delays waiting off the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki due to the pilot services’ lack of staff and equipment.

The service is essential for cruise vessels to be allowed into a port, and the shortages are forcing luxury cruise ships to wait for hours while local businesses wait for the visitors to get off and start spending.

“One or two hours of waiting is nothing – it can be much worse” an agent told Kathimerini, a worrying trend for the tourism season.

With a 16,000-kilometer (9941-mile) coastline, and 6,000 islands, 100 of which are accessible, Greece is an attractive cruise destination. Kountoura stressed that the promotion of “marinas” and “home porting” are at the top of the ministry’s agenda.

Yiannis Retsos, in his first speech as Chairman of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), stressed the importance of the security that should be taken into account by companies that want to invest in Greece, considered a safe destination compared to terrorist-hit places such as Turkey and Egypt which has driven away fearful tourists.

Retsos though pleaded for an end to economic and political uncertainty as part of long delays in SYRIZA and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras finally agreeing to impose more austerity as part of the terms of a third bailout of 86 billion euros ($96.58 billion) with European lenders.

Retsos also called for the modernization of marinas and port infrastructure, ANA said, as well as for the cooperation of all the involving parties in order to meet the needs of the cruise sector.

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