STAVROS DIMAS: We welcome Minister Geroulanos and his associates. We talked about culture and tourism issues, cooperation with Russia for the year 2014, which will be a Greek cultural year in Russia and a year of Russian culture in Greece, with a series of events, which is of great importance not only for the cultural events in and of themselves, but also for the promotion of exports, attracting tourists, attracting investments through the positive promotion of our country in Russia.
We also discussed the visa issue and the potential that exists, so that through greater facilitations and considering the success we had with this last year, we can make it easier to attract more tourists from specific countries. Of course, we also discussed the promotion of our country’s image abroad, which is of huge importance, and we decided to collaborate closely with the other competent agencies in order to improve our country’s image abroad as much as possible.
JOURNALIST: So, Mr. Minister, the Foreign Ministry and the Embassies will be fighting this battle as well?
STAVROS DIMAS: Through the Embassies and the presentations we can make and our actions, so that we can get the optimum result.
JOURNALIST: How satisfied are you with this cooperation with regard to the country’s image abroad?
PAVLOS GEROULANOS: First of all, let me say that the excellent cooperation we have had with the Foreign Ministry so far is continuing, with the brightest example of this cooperation being the success we had with increasing tourism from Russia.
Both Ministries contributed to this very effectively. We want to continue this kind of cooperation and explore new markets that are developing very fast, like China, India, our neighbour Turkey, from whom we want to attract many more tourists.
For this to work right and produce these results, the two Ministries have to work together very closely, and so far this cooperation has been excellent. And I would like to thank the Foreign Ministry personnel for the assistance they have given.
Now, with regard to Greece’s image, you can see that the Foreign and Culture & Tourism Ministries have a special interest in seeing that this image is not tarnished as it has been in recent days.
We consider this to be of vital importance, especially during the period when package tours are being booked. The image our country projects must be positive, peaceful, so that tourists feel safe in our country and are treated in the manner they deserve. In this area, both here at the Central Service and with the Embassies, there has been excellent cooperation so far.
STAVROS DIMAS: And above all it is obvious that the scenes we witnessed in recent days should not be repeated, and we all have a duty in this: the state and all Greeks. Thank you very much.
February 16, 2012