Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura on Friday concluded her visit to Madrid and the International Tourism Fair FITUR, where she had successive meetings with Spanish travel industry officials in order to further boost the tourist flow to Greece.
She noted the steadily upward trend from the Spanish market and the positive messages for 2018 after a meeting with the Tourism Minister of Lebanon, Avedis Guidanian, who also stressed the significant increase of tourist flows to Greece in 2017 and the positive momentum in 2018.
They talked about the possibilities of strengthening bilateral tourism cooperation and joint initiatives in the context of the Phoenicians’ Route cultural tourism programme in the Mediterranean, organised in collaboration with the Council of Europe and the World Tourism Organisation UNWTO. The Lebanese Tourism Minister asked for Kountoura’s support and cooperation to undertake and promote joint actions in view of the upcoming presentation of the pilot project in Beirut.
The Minister also held meetings with her counterparts from Colombia, Cuba and Argentina and discussed ways to cooperate for the benefit of tourism.
During her meeting with the Colombian Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Maria Lorena Gutierrez, she exchanged views on tourism development and discussed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.
Guttierez expressed particular interest in Greece’s tourism policy as well as in possible collaborations involving the exchange of know-how and tourism education and training.
Cuba’s Tourism Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, showed his interest by signing a bilateral memorandum with Greece and invited Minister Kountoura to attend Cuba’s International Tourism Fair (FITCUBA) in Havana in the spring of 2018 in order to establish further cooperation and tourism promotion between the two countries.
On his part, Argentine Tourism Minister Gustavo Santos discussed the prospects for exchanging tourism know-how between Greece and Argentina and enhancing the visitor flow between the two countries. Santos invited the Greek tourism minister to visit Argentina in order to further discuss the development and promotion of bilateral cooperation in tourism.
While in Madrid, The Greek Minister also attended a special event of the UNWTO and accepted the duties as new member of the organization’s Executive Council for 2018 – 2021.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
