Samaras: 2014 will be another record year for tourism

Outlining the government's plans for boosting tourism, he stressed that "the sick residues of the past are over, we are proceeding finally towards a Greece of growth." according to ana-mpa

Samaras said that 2013 was a record year and that this record will be broken in 2014. Appealing to the people of tourism, he urged them to "prepare to receive more than 20 million tourists".

The prime minister said that tourism constitutes 15 pct of the Greek economy, of which 7 pct was its direct and 8 pct its indirect contribution to GDP. He added that the positive repercussion of national strategy on tourism can increase annual demand by 10 billion euros over the next five years and 25 billion euros in the next 10 years, while it will create 220,000 jobs. These do not concern the far future, they have started and they are becoming practice, he said.

Samaras underlined preconditions foir the unimpeded further development of tourism and aimed barbs against the main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, without naming him directly.

The prime minister noted that, while 2013 had seen record arrivals, the government was proceeding with a plan to restructure and upgrade the sector in order to extend the tourism season and increase per capita tourist spending by attracting higher-income tourists.