Greek tourism is guided by National Action Plans for Tourism. Since 2020, Greece has launched annual action plans focused on addressing the top three challenges for tourism in Greece, to build tourism resilience and leveraging opportunities from the green and digital transition: (i) Managing tourist flows and seasonality in flagship destinations, (ii) Developing national tourism products, (iii) Upgrading and modernising tourism education and training, and attracting and retaining the tourism workforce.
The 2024 Action Plan for Tourism is in line with the EU Transition Pathway for Tourism and the UN 2030 Agenda 2030. It focuses on promoting the Greek tourism brand and national tourism product portfolio abroad, enhancing bilateral and multilateral tourism co-operation, and reducing seasonality and raising per capita spending. To achieve this, Greece is building a strategic framework for the development of inbound tourism, strengthening the share of two new target markets outside the EU, and developing promotion action plans focusing on specific long-haul source markets. Upgrading and modernising the framework for tourism education and training as well as upskilling and reskilling the tourism workforce is also a priority for the 2024 Action Plan. A project funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility will be undertaken in 2024-25 to upskill and reskill tourism workers through 250-hour vocational programmes. The project aims to equip 18 000 workers with the skills needed in the labour market, in line with the green and digital transition of the sector.
The digital transition of the tourism sector is a priority of the 2024 Action Plan. Initiatives include the digital transformation of the Ministry of Tourism and Greek National Tourism Organisation, with the creation of a user-friendly portal for citizens, entrepreneurs and tourists to access information from the Ministry. The My Digital Tourism platform aims to streamline processes and encourage investment in tourism. It will facilitate the submission of documents for licensing tourism businesses, the filing of tourist complaints, the inspections of tourism businesses and investigation of complaints, the collection of statistical data on tourist accommodation via a subsystem for recording arrivals and departures and will provide information on legislation and procedures to establish and operate a tourism business. The platform is expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2025 and to benefit over 100 000 businesses.
To improve the competitiveness, diversify and upgrade the national tourism product, the 2024 Action Plan also envisages initiatives to: enhance the regulatory framework for product development in special interest tourism; adapt the institutional framework regarding the licensing of tourist ports, to create an interconnected system for Agri-Food, Gastronomy and Tourism; upgrade mountain tourism infrastructure; and develop other niche tourism products (e.g. diving, religious/pilgrimage tourism, sports tourism, rural tourism, outdoor activities, health and wellness tourism, accessible tourism, silver tourism).Tourism for All 2024-25 programme aims to strengthen domestic tourism demand. Actions refer to modernising the institutional framework regulating the relations between tourist accommodation service providers and their customers, defining functional specifications for awarding the Glamping Label as well as special awards for facilities open to visitors, tourist destinations and tourism businesses.
To enhance tourism development, Greece enacted a Law on Model Tourism Destinations of Integrated Management and Destination Management and Marketing Organisations (DMMOs) in 2021. Through the development of a network of DMMOs Greece aims to create a stable co-operation framework between the public and private sectors, ensuring continuity in the promotion of tourism products and the quality of service. The framework is financed by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Under the law, Greece is also establishing Model Tourism Destinations for Integrated Management that can significantly contribute to the country’s tourist profile and require special management. Destinations are expected to apply for the designation (see box below).
To enhance tourism data, Greece is working to create a National Sustainable Tourism Observatory and implement a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). A pilot TSA exercise was conducted in 2017 and the full TSA is scheduled to be available by the end of 2025. Greece is also working to measure indicators of sustainable tourism development at the national and regional spatial scale. The Ministry of Tourism has also been selected by the EU to participate in the Crisis Management and Governance in Tourism project, which aims to improve the EU tourism ecosystem governance by making it more resilient and better prepared for managing and mitigating crises. Greece is also being supported by the EU Technical Support Instrument to run a project aiming to support the tourism ecosystem, towards a more sustainable, resilient and digital tourism.
