Ioannis Georgizas, CEO of Athens Development S.A., spoke about the development prospects of tourism in Athens, as well as the challenges of its management, at the “Northern Greece of the Future” Forum organized by “Naftemporiki” in Thessaloniki.
Georgizas highlighted the role, mission and transformation of “Athens Development S.A.”, which is the main operational arm of the Municipality of Athens. Focusing on the tourism sector, he said that “Athens Development S.A.”, among other things, supports “the tourism brand of the Municipality of Athens, what is called ‘This is Athens’ and this has been happening very successfully for some time now.”
Tourism is a source of wealth – 8 million tourists in Athens
“Greece won the award for the best cultural tourism, a global award, last year. The mayor has realized that beyond the ongoing promotion, we should also look at the overall management of tourism. A few years ago, tourism in Athens was 2 million – of course, it was during the crisis when we were collapsing, that’s true – while last year we had 8 million tourists and we will have more,” he estimated.
“For us, tourists are welcome. Tourism is a resource, it is a source of wealth,” he stated, emphasizing, however, that “we must see what the possible consequences so that we can deal with them. A happy citizen also leads to a happy tourist, because the tourist understands this.”
Athens is not faced with overtourism
Presenting the main conclusions of the study, Georgizas said that Athens does not have overtourism. “We have a wonderful climate and we can serve tourists all year round. We should move in this direction and we are working on this both in the Development Department and in the Municipality of Athens,” he added.
