14th November 2006, 21:16
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Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
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Rep Power: 3  |  Industry officials optimistic over tourism
Quote: Industry officials optimistic over tourism
Tourist arrivals are expected to rise by 8-10 percent this year, while revenues are projected to total 13.7 billion euros, up 10 percent from 2005, Stavros Andreadis, the president of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises, said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters during a news conference on the occasion of the 22nd Philoxenia tourism fair in Thessaloniki, Andreadis stressed that Greek tourism had not room for complacency.
"I fear this feeling of happy inactivity," he said, adding that Greece "sells as an idea and we must build on this by strengthening the country's tourism profile with "high added value products".
Andreas Andreadis, president of the national association of hoteliers, said that 40-50 percent of new investments in Greece covered hotel projects, while he noted that it was equally important to build new five-star hotels and to upgrade the existing 7,000 hotel units around the country.
Andreadis said the association was developing a cooperation with large Internet tour operators and noted that Expedia's turnover from Greek hotels was expected to reach 300 million euros in the next three years.
Tourist arrivals from Russia and Ukraine - arriving by airplane - to central Macedonia grew by 16 percent and 100 percent in the 10-month period from January to October this year, compared with the same period 2005, while the Association of Thessaloniki Hoteliers reported a rebound in room occupancy rates in the first half of 2006, after a steady decline in the previous three years. Average occupancy rate reached 54 percent in the city of Thessaloniki.
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