World Travel and Tourism Council

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) highlighted on Thursday the major growth Greek tourism recorded in 2019 and praised the Greek government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying tourism will see the country overcome the economic crisis from the pandemic.

Nikolina Angelova held a working meeting with Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kuntura, reported NOVA TV. 

Nikolina Angelova held a working meeting with Greece's Minister of Tourism Elena Kuntura, the Bulgarian administration said. They spoke at the 19th World Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), held in Seville, Spain.

The tourism and travel sector in Greece grew 6.9 percent last year, a rate that was three-and-a-half times higher than the growth rate of the entire Greek economy, a survey by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has noted.

The survey illustrated that tourism accounted for 20.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product, against a global rate of just 10.4 percent.

The Greek tourism sector had a general contribution of 18.6% (32.8 billion euros) to the country’s GDP in 2016, according to a World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report. The data showed that the economic expansion brought about tourism resulted in the creation of 860,500 jobs which corresponds to 23.4% of the aggregate job rate.

According to data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG), revenue from the tourism industry had dropped by 9.85 billion Euros (7.1%) over the past 8-moth period, compared to the same period in 2015, which is a record low from the start of the year in January till the end of the summer season in August.

The World Travel and Tourism Council presented its promotion video titled “I Am Travel”. Footage is from various travelers and contributors experiencing travel first hand. The goal is to share the wonders of the world and spread the message that freedom to travel is a right that all people should have!

Montenegro tops tourism growth list

Tourism revenue in Montenegro is expected to grow more than 17 percent from last year. Also in business news: Turkey will begin to renegotiate its Customs Union Agreement with the EU by June.

Montenegro ranked first on the list of 184 countries expected to show tourism growth. [AFP]