HARIS KOKKOSIS General Secretary of the Greek National Tourism Organisation

United World: Could you tell us a little bit in practical terms what is the role of GNTO is and what are your priorities now as the head of GNTO?

GNTO is the operational arm of the Ministry of Tourism. In that sense, it deals in three aspects: product marketing; product control; product development; product development means that we are looking after new types of hospitality venues, that we are planning on looking after our customers who visits hotels and that we are building new marinas; all these projects are licensed by our technical department.

United World: Lets talk about these sections in detail starting with the control section. From our interviews with actors from the private sector there is apparently a need for a standardized service in the tourism sector.

There is a standardized service in the sense that any hotel that is being built in Greece has to be granted the approval by GNTO - and it has been so since the 60´s. This approval includes all phases starting with the building permit. In the last years though, some of the licensing was removed from GNTO and it was granted regionally. However some of the regions lacked proper office infrastructure so we have decided to recap on that one and let GNTO regain its authority over that matter. GNTO has to do mainly with technical specifications.

United World: Last month you closed some Hotels down over such matters.

Yes, because the license has to be renewed every two years and that was the reason we did what we did.

United World: Lets talk about the promotional aspect. It is true that the methods Greece is using to promote itself can be somewhat antiquated - people are saying, "enough with the Acropolis, lets do something else". What are your efforts and priorities in that respect?

We have a rich endowment in terms of natural and cultural heritage. We have a high diversity of natural ecosystems, actually we posses over 1,600 different types of ecosystems. This is one of the densest countries in Europe in terms of ecosystems. On the other hand, Greece is better known for its landmark cultural heritage. However, things have changed. We have revolutionized our infrastructure due to the Olympic Games. We try to capitalize on the opportunities that exist to diversify the product. We have four axes in our strategy to increase alternative tourism:

a. spa and thalassotherapy beauty centers;

b. cultural and urban tourism, convention and business tourism;

c. eco-tourism and agro tourism;

d. sea tourism, diving, yachting.

We believe that the tourism of tomorrow will be different to what we traditionally have known. Modern tourism is more personalized, and tailor-made to suit the individual. You can see that people today fly into Greece for cheap and then they hire a car and follow their own itinerary. We try to cater to that.

At the same time we are trying to open new markets. Our Minister is right now in China and will visit Russia and the Arab states, which are our targets for the future. Altogether we try to redesign our strategy to cater for modern and personalized tourism. Our campaign will change too. Instead of using a massive campaign abroad once a year we will be launching several-targeted short campaigns, which will focus on special groups such as business tourists. Some of our major events and exhibitions will rely more and more on secondary advertisement and not a single massive campaign. At the same time we are trying to sell Greece as a place for investment due to the modernization revolution, which has taken place due to the Games. We intend to curb red tape and bureaucracy in order for people to come and invest. We try to stimulate the private sector to come in and invest. We already have a lot of interest in complex types of investment such as spas with golf course facilities - this is the type of integrated development we are looking at.

United World: Concerning the promotional aspect of GNTO do you work closely with private sector players such as the Kapsis family?

We do not work with individual operators; we work with actors in the sector such as the Hotels Association. We do not wok directly with individuals.

United World: What I understand is that you want to tailor-made your products according to the market; concerning the US market which until recently used to provide a big part of the visitors who come to Greece, what is the image you would like to project?

We consider the US to be a major additional market for us besides Europe, which is our natural regional market. We want to improve the share of the US tourists who come to Greece. I am sure that we are going to restore and surpass the past levels with regards to the US visitors once the Euro to US$ ratio is even and once the safety issue has been clarified - here I must add that the Olympic Games are a very good opportunity to rectify that. One of the major tour operators in Germany who are working with us told me something which was not apparent to me although I live in this country: "Greece is one of the very few destinations where you go out at night and you do not have to think about being robbed". This is something that we do not think about and therefore we do not advertise. However, it is something we can capitalize upon.

There is a small crisis happening in the Cruise-boat industry but I believe that once the flow gets restored the market will be profitable again since the demand is there. Altogether we want people from the US to come to Greece and invest in complex long-term developments. We are reopening our offices in LA and Chicago since it was a mistake to have had them closed down. We want to restore our relations and be present in some of the previous exhibitions, which were held in the US.

United World: In terms of investment opportunities, are there any particular developments and infrastructures that you would like to highlight? We were in Rhodes and the mayor gave us the example of the new marina.

We are building only us. GNTO has built 6 marinas. Most of all we try to develop the complex developments, which have spas and golf courses and the likes. The western part of Greece is waiting for all that with the aid of the new bridge between Rio and Antirio and the Ionian motorway, which will be linking the northwestern port of Igoumenitsa to the city of Patras. The whole area will open itself up to accessibility. In the north, the Egnatia motorway which links west to east will be doing exactly the same thing. Egnatia motorway which is EU funded will make Thessalonica and its vicinity accessible. Here I must add that sea transport has been modernized with better and faster vessels.

United World: De to the Olympic Games, cities like Barcelona saw their tourists' intake increase ten-fold which is something incredible. Do you see a pre-Olympics and post-Olympics year in terms of tourism?

Sydney did not have this experience nor did Atlanta. Barcelona was a very peculiar case, for the whole thing happened at a period when Catalonia was going out very aggressively. Of course, we hope that with these investments after the Games we will have increased our convention capacities ten-fold in Athens, Thessalonica and other cities. There is going to be growth, there is no doubt about that. The question is whether it is going to be ten-fold or twenty-fold. That I cannot say. We want to penetrate the urban tourism and I believe we can. We know that our main product is still the islands but places like Nafplion are coming up.

United World: Our report is going to be published after the Olympics. How are you going to capitalize on that and make sure that the momentum will not be lost?

Through several ways. We will be running a number of events, cultural and athletic events with Athens as the center. We are building our campaign on the capitalization of the OUTLOOK exhibition, which was a major event and went very well. With all the attention that we have drawn to ourselves we are trying to lure DFI.

United World: It is quite a significant step for this new government to set up a new minister for tourism as opposed to a vice-minister. It is more than rhetoric.

The particularity of tourism is that it is a very complex and multi-dynamic industry, which relates from the odd taxi driver to the information desk at the airport. So there ought to be a coordinating scheme behind it all. It does not have to be a super ministry, just a coordinating force, which will assist also by offering guidelines to all the progressive and positive ideas that are stemming out of our municipalities.

United World: Thank you very much for your comments.