TUI and Greek Tourism Ministry join forces to reach 50% of last year's arrivals

TUI Group, the largest tour operator in the world sent a message for the restart of the Greek tourist industry from the island of Kos on Tuesday.

Sebastian Ebel, a member of TUI's Executive Board and responsible for Destination Experiences, Hotels & Resorts, Cruises, and Group Purchasing referred to the strong demand for reservations in Greece, as seen in its reservation systems, and urged the hotels in Greece that cooperate with TUI to open their doors.

Earlier, the Greek Tourism Ministry and TUI Group had signed an agreement of strategic importance according to which TUI will aim at bringing over 1.5 million tourists to Greece this year.

Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis expressed his satisfaction over this development and underlined that the specific agreement, on one hand, sends the message of the dynamic restart of the Greek tourism industry in the international tourism stage, and on the other hand, creates new conditions for the tourism flows to Greece.

On his part, Ebel said that the international tour operator will do whatever possible in order for the company's 13 airplanes to fly full with passengers to Greece, "I will be disappointed if we do not meet the 1.5-million-tourist goal," he said.

Ebel also observed that it is an exceptional opportunity for Greece this year to attract clients that the previous years visited exotic destinations and make them want to return, as Greece is an excellent destination.

Referring to the agreement Theocharis said: "We set a common target to bring 50 percent of the tourists the group brought to Greece last year. We remind that 2.8 to 3 million tourists came to Greece last year via TUI.

-We are implementing this target through a joint advertisement in which Greece will be the first country the group will cooperate with.
-We are planning common actions for the extension of the tourism period, a crucial issue for this year's success.
-Additionally, we intensify our actions for the extension of the tourists' stay in Greece.
-We emphasize on the strategic reformation with actions for sustainable tourism growth.
-We will plan new cruise routes for this year and for the following years.
-We focus on digitalization and less bureaucracy. 

The Τourism Minister stressed that this agreement is very important for the country's efforts to gain the lost ground this year and gives the signal to every tourism professional that it will be in his/her interest to open their businesses this year and allows us to look to the future with optimism".

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