D. AVRAMOPOULOS: Good morning. The RED (Real Estate and Development) that you referred to earlier, suggests various things. As we know, there is “red tape,” which slows development. That is a thing of the past. But there is also the “red carpet,” which symbolizes how investors and tourists who decide to invest in and visit our country will now be treated.
It really is a particular pleasure to have this opportunity today to address this audience; an audience that deals with investment, development, and the strongest factor in Greece’s economic growth: tourism. I avoid using the term ‘industry’ because I think it belittles the potential of Greek tourism, which has more to do with development and culture.Today, a new chapter really is opening in the efforts of Greece and Europe as a whole to put an end to the crisis and, with resolute steps, embark on the path of growth.
Yesterday’s Eurogroup decisions respond to the most critical question – a question that has been hanging in the air for the past three years – about the global economy. They respond to the trust deficit in a decisive manner, in a definitive manner. Europe decided yesterday to stay united, and for its members to mount a common struggle that will bolster our common currency and show the world that, when there is political will, there is no weak link in the chain.
Greece pulled its weight. The huge sacrifices of the Greek people, the difficult decisions we were called upon to make, our persistence on the difficult path of responsibility gave our country back its lost credibility. Now we have the means and the time we need to turn the game around. Europe will make gains together with Greece, because never again will anyone question our political will and resolve to jointly build our new, great country: Europe.
Dear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We live in a time that, due to the crisis, does not inspire the same optimism as the 1990s or even the first decade of the 21st century as concerns the expansion and deepening of global cooperation. History doesn’t stop. But it seemed until now to be somewhat out of breath.
The slowdown in growth rates, the appearance of reactionary and inhibitive nationalistic trends, the culture clash that divided continents and communities, the fear and insecurity caused by breakneck change are breaking the wave of global change. There is no doubt that, as a generation, we are living through a transitional era. The advent of the new brings pain and, often, reactions. But one thing is certain: we must not forget that one of the main factors that fuelled the evolution of the global era was the revolution in transport; a revolution that made our world smaller and more accessible. A traveller is, and always was, first and foremost the one who opens paths of communication, cooperation, understanding and commercial transactions among the nations and peoples of the world. This is an historical truth that has its significance in our era.
The tourism sector, as I said before, is not just an industry with multiple benefits for the whole of the productive fabric. It is a diachronic motor force for bringing citizens of the world together, and it is a catalyst for eradicating the stereotypes that separate the cultures and nations of the world.
Let me make a point here. Unfortunately, in Greece the term tourism took on – from the very moment the first infrastructure was built – a not so positive sense. I would say that it was somewhat disparaging. The numbers you referred to a short while ago speak for themselves, and at this critical time for the Greek economy, for Greek society, we all realise that the spearhead of our development policy is none other than our tourism policy. We all understand what 18% of a country’s GDP means.
For certain reasons, Greece missed a number of the trains that stopped for it in the past. The reasons are well known. After the Second World War, while Europe was rebuilding, civil war broke out in Greece, delaying development. A new era of new technologies came, and we fell behind there, too, despite the efforts made in this sector via private initiatives, because we never had a strategy, and, most of all, at the time when we should have been capitalizing on the potential offered us by history, we were absent.
I want to believe that everything we are going through today, in combination with the lessons history has taught us, will make us all more prudent, more cautious, and give Greece a new outlook that we, the representatives of Greek politics, must cultivate.
During what was to me an invaluable time spent at the Ministry of Tourism Development, I set the strategic goal of developing – for the first time – tourism diplomacy.
Tourism contributes, through promotion of the country’s international image, to the strengthening of Greece’s international standing. Particularly today, we have need of this. Tourism diplomacy thus becomes and extension, a branch, of foreign policy.
A told my associates at the Ministry of Tourism Development at that time that our whole policy should take this factor into account, because the country’s international image translates into political, geopolitical and diplomatic terms. So I would like us once again to open Greece up to the world, bringing investments, tourism and growth to our country.
Right now at the Foreign Ministry we are promoting all the necessary measures and policies for facilitating Greece’s tourism relations with critical tourism markets. One of these priorities was to change the visa regime in Greece; a regime that will be a very important measure for our country.
During the Greek EU Presidency in the first half of 2014, one of our country’s strategic goals will be to raise the issue of visas, endeavouring to secure an exemption for countries whose main source of income is tourism.
So we are developing the strategy and the plan for comprehensive development of our national image and identity in the international environment – a task that will contribute decisively to Greece’s global engagement, to Greece’s rehabilitating its reputation and its tarnished international prestige, as well as to the existence, for the first time, of a central message that points up the ‘Greek brand’. Experience tells us that in the past the fragmented policies for promoting Greece did not bring the desired results.
In the tourism experience, there are no competing nations. There is just the timeless human desire for knowledge, communication and new discoveries. We only need consider that the Cold War walls fell, in the end, due to people’s inexorable longing to get to know their neighbours better, to visit the other side of the wall – a revolution that, as I said earlier, took place, first and foremost, in the sectors of technology, transport and communications, changing the geography of the world.
So we only need realise that all the projects, investments, international organizations, diplomatic initiatives begin and reach completion through a visit to a land. The value of an open world begins and ends with the perpetual energy and revolutionary changes borne by a traveller. It is no coincidence that one of the main factors that has shaped a more positive climate in Greece’s relations with its neighbour, Turkey, is that now hundreds of thousands of citizens of both countries, breaking through the psychological prejudices and stereotypes, started to visit each other’s country. So this tourism diplomacy was, is and will remain one of the basic pillars of a free and, above all, open world.
Our government, and the Prime Minister himself, has set this as a priority – a prerequisite – for our country’s return to growth. All the productive Ministries, under the coordination of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister himself, are working together in this direction. At this point I would like to emphasize the contribution, with the open spirit that distinguishes him, of Mr. Kalafatis, who is here today, because this really is the first time these Ministries – instead of competing – are pervaded by a shared outlook and understanding, cooperation and coordination.
I hope that tourism becomes a field where we can meet and collaborate, and that this attitude prevails more generally in the politics of our country, for national and social understanding and unity.
I thank you for your invitation, and I wish you success in the proceedings of this meeting.