The national tourism board of Greece, Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), has made its debut in the India market. As part of its efforts in the debut year, the tourism organisation will focus on understanding the market, subsequently developing strategies. GNTO plans to promote the destination in Mumbai and Delhi initially and later other metros.
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Elena Kountoura, minister of tourism of Greece, said, “India is a dynamic growth market and we are very happy to see that Indians prefer to visit Greece when they visit Europe. From 2015, we have seen three-fold growth in Indian tourist arrivals to Greece. Our goal is to present Greece to Indian travellers. We have observed that Indians love to travel and when they go to Europe, we know that they really want to visit Greece.”
GNTO targets to position Greece in the top five list of European destinations for for Indian tourists.
“Tourism in Greece in last year has grown seven-eight per cent, which is twice the average global tourism growth. Greece is the only country in the Mediterranean that has more than 100 islands. Not just for leisure, Greece also offers a great opportunity for MICE tourism and weddings. These factors, together, form a great package to offer in order to open up the India market for Greece,” she added.
In May last year, representatives of several travel companies from Greece had, for the first time, organised a destination presentation along with Emirates Airlines. However, GNTO wasn’t part of the delegation. This year’s delegation included Maria Alifrangi, vice president, Signature Travel & board member of Hatta ( the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies), Fotini Fragkou, member of The Tourist Committee of Karpathos Island and Sofia Filippaki, sales manager, MICE & Leisure, Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel. Fragkou said, “We are making our foray into the India market because Indians like to visit Greece. We have good connectivity with airlines like Emirates, Qatar, Turkish Airlines and Etihad. Mykanos, Santorini, Athens are the popular places but we also want to promote new places like Karpathos Island. As a destination, Greece offers history, culture and hospitality. Visitors from India almost doubled last year so we want to build on that.” Alifrangi added, “Olympia is the birthplace of the Olympic Games so we want to promote it for educational tours. We have met a number of schools to tap the school excursions market.” Filippaki pointed out, “In Europe, Greece is a safe destination. We also have good facilities for MICE and Greek cuisine has good options for vegetarians too. We have been servicing the India market since past 15 years so we know the food and we also allow Indian chefs in our hotel kitchens if the client requires it.”
Kountoura informed, “We want to reinforce ourselves in India and next year we will also foray into Delhi. We are hoping to have a policy which will ensure more tourist arrivals from India. Our embassy works to make a lot of connections. We would like Indian travel industry to connect with their counterparts in Greece, because as a governmental organisation, we frame and develop ways which help private travel and tourism countries connect and develop business.”
Greece is one of the popular destination among the international film industry and GNTO plans to leverage upon that in India too. “Film tourism is also very important for Greece, because Greece offers a great location for movies. We have spoken to the Bollywood industry. Weddings are becoming more and more popular in Greece; we also have a few Indian weddings planned this year,”she explained.
The tourism organisation’s future plan includes setting up an India office. Addtionally, it is also seeking possibilities of direct flights.
(with inputs from Steena Joy)
