GNTO΄s ambitious proposals for extending tourist season and the infrastructure problems
Angela Gerekou: "The next day of tourism is today and now".
The Greek National Tourist Organisation President Angela Gerekou met yesterday afternoon with tourist and professional bodies to talk about the extension of the tourist season, something Corfu has been wanting for many years. Inevitably, however, during this discussion the professionals highlighted the problem of lack of infrastructure, which is complex, very difficult to solve and requires funding and organisation.
Seasonality
"The next day of our island's tourism is today and it is now, it cannot wait. In order to make this happen it is important to extend the tourist season, spreading tourism flows across space and time. Only if seasonality stops existing will we ensure long-term sustainable businesses and jobs. Also the extension implies less crowds and therefore less environmental impact and this is where we should mention "carrying capacity" which we must boldly face," said Ms. Gerekou, stressing the necessity of setting up a DMO for the management of tourism flows.
Countless possibilities
The Greek National Tourist Organisation President presented a number of possibilities in different thematic directions: The promotion of the island as a city break, conference tourism, visits focusing on the island's architectural heritage, silver tourism, yachting, gastronomy, agro-food, experiential tourism and cultural tourism. As she pointed out, Corfu with its great musical tradition deserves to be established as the "Island of Music".
Among GNTO's very ambitious plans, Angela Gerekou even included the promotion of Corfu as a base for digital nomads. It is the new hot trend in the workplace, in the age of the internet, where one can choose their place of residence independently of where their employer is as long as they have a computer and, of course, high-speed internet!
She also put great emphasis on strengthening the Ionian Islands Film Office, aiming to make it an even more friendly destination for major international productions. As she stressed, the film promotion of the island cannot be compared to any other advertising campaign.
Ms. Gerekou also pointed out the absolute need to finally implement, after many years, the waterway network, a prerequisite for the extension of the season.
The infrastructure problems
However, GNTO's ambitious plans were bound to give rise to a number of concerns from productive bodies, who stressed the difficulty of the project given the huge infrastructure problems.
Health, road network, water supply, old tourist infrastructure, lack of sports and cultural venues and traffic problem were some of the issues raised by representatives of productive bodies, while Kostas Tsoumanis, head of the Regional Tourism Service, highlighted the "bureaucratic madness" that the shared competence of up to 10 ministries creates in some cases. Mr. Tsoumanis described the organisational issue as the number one problem in achieving any goal and said that the development of the tourist product is mainly a matter for professionals and not for politics.
The GNTO President asked the productive bodies to join forces for the common goal and collected memos to forward them to the relevant ministries and departments.
Photos & video: Enimerosi
CHRISTINA GEREKOU
