(TAN): The Greek tourism ministry will establish a working group to form a national observatory for sustainable tourism development in the country, reports said.
Minister of Tourism Harry Theoharis reportedly made the announcement after signing the agreement earlier this week.
The observatory will gather data on the environmental impact of tourism to offer insights for sustainable tourism policies, as per reports.
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According to reports, the working group will include seven senior officials from the tourism ministry, experts from the sector and academics, who over the next few months will accomplish a number of things – gather information to develop a sustainable tourism index, submit a proposal to the government to create a registration and information system based on tourism data, and gather data on tourism trends at the local, regional, national, and international levels to help make timely decisions for the management and promote Greece as a destination.
The group will also develop a map of areas in which the observatories can be set up, followed by submitting proposals for developing information systems for improving sustainable tourism, reports said. It is expected to complete the first four actions by February 28, as per reports.
Greece also developed a six-pronged plan, named MAZI 2020, for the country’s tourism strategy for the year, a Greek Travel Pages report said.
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The plan stressed on a group of priorities for the sector, such as forming a new legal framework covering special forms of tourism, creating a Santorini-focused destination management body, improving maritime tourism, updating vocational education in tourism, forming a national strategic tourism development plan for the next ten years to better the competitiveness of Greece’s tourism product, and regulating the short-term home rental market, according to reports.
“There have been a number of positive interventions; the issue of Thomas Cook has been addressed, so now is the time to discuss planning for the first half of 2020 so that we can continue to build on the good momentum,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was quoted by Greek Travel Pages as saying.
