Greek government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou announced that Vassilis Kikilias will take over the Ministry of Tourism in place of Harry Theoharis, who was left out of the government.
According to Greek media, ensuring the survival of small and medium-sized hotel companies, mainly those that operate all year round, and have borne heavy burdens in the last two years, due to the pandemic, the emphasis on quality tourism, through the further promotion of the brand “Greece”, the extension of tourist season and the improvement of infrastructure in order to “withstand” the pressure of the coming years from the expected new record of arrivals of foreign tourists are the “labors” the new Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias will have to face.
Bio of the new Minister of Tourism
Vassilis Kikilias was born in Athens in 1974. He studied at the Leontion High School and then at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, from which he graduated in 2002. He pursued further studies at the Department of Health Policy and Management of the National School of Public Health, where he received his Master’s degree in 2008. In 2011 he was awarded a doctorate from the Medical School of the University of Athens.
Sports career
From 1990 to 2004 he played professional basketball. He is 6 feet tall and played mainly as a small forward. He has played for Panionios, Ionikos, AEK Athens, Apollon Patras, as well as for the National Basketball Team. With the National Children’s team he became European runner-up in 1991. He made 6 appearances with the men’s National Team, scoring 76 points.
Political career
He was elected as an Athens city councilor in 2006. In 2007 he became president of the Athens Youth and Sports Organization (ONA), a position he held until 2011. In 2007 he was elected member of the Political Committee of New Democracy (ND; Greek: Νέα Δημοκρατία, romanized: Néa Dimokratía), of which he has been a member ever since.
In the national elections of 2009, he ran as a parliamentary candidate for Athens A’ constituency but was not elected. In the 2010 local elections, he was a candidate for regional governor in the Region of Attica, taking second place with 47.50% of the votes, and was head of the major opposition in the Region of Attica until 2010.
He was elected MP in the Athens A’ constituency in the national elections of May and June 2012. On 9 June 2014, following a decision by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, he took office as Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection.
He has been re-elected MP for Athens A constituency in the national elections held in January and September 2015. As of November 2016, he took over the duties of New Democracy’s press spokesman until October 2017, when he was succeeded by Maria Spyraki and became Minister of National Defence of New Democracy, succeeding Adonis Georgiades.
In the 2019 elections he was re-elected MP and on 9 July 2019, he was appointed Minister of Health in Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ Cabinet.
Newly appointed ministers are sworn in at the Presidential Mansion in Athens
The swearing-in of ten new cabinet members was concluded on Tuesday, before President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou and in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The event commenced with the signing of the necessary protocols by the president, the prime minister, and the representative of the Archbishop, Bishop of Orei Filotheos, who also conducted the swearing-in ceremony.
After an earlier announcement about a cabinet reshuffle, the newly appointed ministers include the following:
Athanassios Plevris (Health), Panagiotis Theodorikakos (Citizen Protection), Vassilios Kikilias (Tourism), Asimina Gaga (Alternate Health), Andreas Katsaniotis (Deputy FM), Nicholaos Hardalias (Deputy National Defense), Michail Papadopoulos (Deputy Transport), and Georgios Karagiannis (Deputy Infrastructure) and Simeon Kedikoglou (Deputy Agricultural Development for Fisheries).
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
