Deputy Minister of Tourism Anna Karamanli participated in the Sport Tourism Forum 2025, an event held in Athens at the War Museum and aimed to highlight the potential of sports tourism as a lever for sustainable development and extroversion for the country.
In her statement, Ms. Karamanli referred to the strategic importance of sports tourism for the national tourism policy, emphasizing that the connection of sports with tourism can create new opportunities for local communities and the Greek economy.
“The diversity of sports tourism provides enormous scope for development. And Greece, with its rich and diverse natural environment and conditions that favor outdoor activities all year round, emerges as an ideal terrain for the development of various forms of sports tourism in every region of the country”, the Deputy Minister underlined.
Ms. Karamanli made special reference to the recent events that highlighted our country internationally, such as the Authentic Athens Marathon and the international ATP tennis tournament, underlining that “Greece has the experience to host high-level events, proving that it can play a leading role in the international sports scene”.
At the same time, she presented the key initiatives of the Ministry of Tourism that enhance the sustainable development of new forms of tourism, such as: the strategic planning for Mountain Tourism, aiming to transform ski resorts into special tourist infrastructures with twelve-month operation, the “Upgrading of Tourist Ports” project and the “Diving and Underwater Tourism” project.
Concluding her intervention, she emphasized: “In recent years, Greek tourism has demonstrated the resilience of a marathon runner and the speed of a sprinter. The dynamics of sports tourism can act as an accelerator in the transition towards a quality, sustainable tourism economy. When we join forces, we can lead Greek tourism faster, higher, stronger.”
