A few suggestions for our new rulers

Well, we finally have a new 'sort of' government and now we have to wait and see if there are any improvements. A few suggestions for our new rulers...

1. A tourism minister who actually knows something about tourism and who doesn't think that an increase in the number of cruise passengers setting foot on Greek soil for maximum half a day, represents an increase in tourism. Perhaps a minister who is actually available to members of the tourist industry for their input.

2. Review and change the ridiculous illogical requirements currently in place for EOT licences, to encourage owners to pay for a licence, let their properties, and pay reasonable taxes on their profits.

3. Review and change the new tax laws as applied to foreign property buyers - in some countries these are fondly known as 'investors' ie. they bring money into the country (but of course Greece doesn't need money). Encouragement to these people should be a major priority.

4. Incentives to existing businesses in the tourism sector, to improve their scope and services, such as tax concessions and allowances for modernisation and refurbishment, in order to drag Greece into the current century and compete with more recent tourist destinations. These occasionally do exist, more often than not their terms are so prohibitive that few businesses manage to gain any benefit. The whole tourism and related industry needs constructive, practical assistance.

As always, I doubt very much if any of the above will happen. Greece seems so hidebound in its ways, with blinkered vision, that we all just stagger on in the same old way and rely on the beauty of the country and the warm personal welcome of its citizens to foreign visitors to sustain an industry which could be a major factor in the gradual recovery of the country.
Diana