[GNTO]
The sector of tourism “has become the backbone of Greek-Turkish rapprochement and the vehicle that brought our two peoples closer,” Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said last week, apropos of the Greece-Turkey Joint Tourism Committee meeting in Athens.
Tourism has also contributed to “the mitigation of negative stereotypes dominating the societies of both countries,” she added.
The committee’s fifth meeting took place in the presence of Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, leading a delegation to Greece.
Kefalogianni said that when the procedures of rapprochement were set out in the early 2000s, tourism flows between the two countries did not exceed a few thousand visitors on either side.
“Within only 20 years, they reached a million on each side, before the pandemic,” while this year indicates a gradual recovery of the numbers.
During their meeting, the two sides discussed strategies and practices on sustainable tourism and climate change, options in promoting collaboration in niche tourism (agritourism, gastronomy, maritime and health tourism), and exchanged views on tourism career training and investments.
Turkish Minister Ersoy said he was committed to promoting joint work in tourism and expressed his certainty that “the topics of the agenda and the minutes signed in the context of the meeting will be decisive in future expansion of tourism relations.”
