Government Ministers Confirm Route Development is Vital to Achieving Their Objectives

Destination briefings were held today at the inaugural Routes Tourism Mediterrnean, taking place in Antalya, Turkey. As well as highlighting what their regions had to offer, the Ministers spoke of their intention to work closely with aviation professionals so as to enable them to achieve their objectives. These briefings provided the ideal platform for Ministries of Tourism not only to promote their location to the route development decision-makers of the region, but also to discuss their hopes and ambitions for the tourism industry within their country and indeed worldwide.

Opening the Destination Briefings, Nigel Mayes, Vice President and Commercial Director of Routes, said: “Having such active participation from the tourism industry in route development is key to the future and development of tourism. The fact that such key and senior figures within the industry are engaging in this way, promoting their destination and working in partnership with airports, is indicative of the changing shape of the route development industry.”

Denis Ivosevic, Managing Director of Istria Regional Tourist Board, focused his briefing on the Istria region of Croatia, an area accounting for one third of the country. He was keen to drive home the radically changing image of tourism in Croatia: the focus is not on numbers of tourists, but rather on their experience. Their plans are more long-term, so there is an interest in looking at how to create sustainable and responsible growth in traffic on a 20 to 30 year timescale. Ivosevic confirmed that the biggest challenge was making sure that they collaborated with aviation in a way that would maximise the tourism potential of both Istria and Croatia as a whole.

Representing the Greek Tourism Ministry, Christos Petreas, Special Advisor to the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Hellenic Ministry of Tourism, highlighted three main points. First, he made it clear that there is “a new wind blowing on the government’s views of, and collaboration with, tourism”. He continued that it was now more possible than ever for businesses to work together in Greece, again emphasising the government’s interest in entering into discussions with interested parties. Finally, Petreas acknowledged that in the past Greece’s promotion of its tourism potential had been lagging, while driving home the point that this was now changing and that Greece is entering a new era of investment in tourism.

Levent Demirel, Deputy Director General Promotion, from the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture, said that early booking figures indicated that they should expect a 10 – 15 per cent growth in tourists this year. He highlighted the strong experiences of those visiting Turkey, saying that the country has a 90 per cent satisfaction rate for tourists – though of course are aiming for a 100 per cent rate – and suggested that this was likely to be due to their keen focus on improving the range and quality of experiences on offer. Demirel’s final point was that he hoped Turkey would be seen as an “open air museum”, not only in terms of the vast and significant historical and cultural elements of the nation, but also in relation to the possibility of countless types of activity holiday.

All three of the ministers confirmed that they are working increasingly closely with both their tourism authority counterparts and the aviation industry as whole, in the hope of increasing tourism traffic.