Next year, Greece and Japan will be celebrating a relationship that started 120 years ago. Combined with the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo, this is a unique opportunity for Greece to promote itself in the country of the Rising Sun, according to Japanese Ambassador to Greece Yasuhiro Shimizu. “I encourage your government to do more in Japan” he underlines in an interview for Capital.gr and reveals that Japanese companies are looking for investment opportunities in Greece, but underlines that the Greek government will have to resolve a number of issues such as bureaucracy and the tax system in order to convince them.
Especially about tourism he notes:
“In the 80s and in the 90s the number of Japanese tourists visiting Greece was about 150,000 on a yearly basis. But now this number has dropped to 10,000. One reason could be due to the negative image Japanese people having on the country. The vast majority of Japanese people believe that Greece is a poor country, suffered much by the refugee problem and some believe that amongst the refugees there could be some terrorists coming from the Islamic State. As you understand, it does not reflect the reality of Greece. So the Greek government should correct this image. In 2014, the Greek government shutdown the tourism bureau in Tokyo. If the office was to reopen and tourism was promoted then there would be a good chance for tourism from Japan to be boosted. In contrast to Greece, Croatia for instance is attracting 150,000 Japanese tourists every year. The thing is that Croatia is intensely promoting tourism in Tokyo.
Last year Greece attracted around 30 million tourists. So in this context, maybe some Greek businessmen believe that they don’t need tourism from Japan. But I believe this is wrong. You have a lot of people coming just in summertime. While Japanese tourists travel all year around and not just in summer. For instance we have a long vacation around New Year΄s period, then around February – March many students visit overseas before their graduation from their schools in March. Then we have the “golden week” end of April beginning of May when they also travel and then there΄s the “silver week” end of September beginning of October.”
Read full interview here.
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
Source: capital.gr
