Over a walk at the Anafiotika neighbourhood in Plaka, Greece’s Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias and the Australian Ambassador to Greece, Arthur Spirou, formalised the reopening of the EOT office in Melbourne.

During the meeting, the prospects for the even greater strengthening of the cooperation between Greece and Australia in the tourism sector were discussed.

In his statements to the media, Mr Kikilias underlined that the tourist season for Greece started in the beginning of March, stressing that “tourism has never ended in Athens, it has lasted throughout the winter months and the proof is that for the first months of the year, January, February and March 2023 we are well above both 2019 and 2022, while bookings for the summer season are 20 per cent above 2019 in terms of revenue and arrivals.”

Referring to his meeting with Mr Spirou, the Tourism Minister noted that “it is a great honour for me to be here, in Plaka, with an excellent diplomat and Australia’s Ambassador to Greece, Mr Arthur Spirou, who honours his position as a delegate of his country. We have an excellent cooperation and I am very happy that under his watch we have managed through joint efforts to reopen the EOT office – which was once in Sydney – now in Melbourne. This is very important for us, because Australia is a very large market and we want it in Greece.”

During the conversation it was revealed that Mr Spirou’s father was the director of the EOT office in Sydney in the 1970s.

“This ‘explosion’ of tourism in Greece, is the result of a lot of hard work and effort, and we could not be happier to have him here, helping our effort. I want to publicly thank him very much,” Mr Kikilias said referring to Mr Spirou.

In turn, the Australian Ambassador to Greece reiterated the success of the tourism influx to Greece, highlighting the projections that predict an even stronger year.

“I think the season will be very long,” Mr Spirou said.

“In 2019 we had 340,000 Australians come and it’s going up, the trend is up. We know that the Australian tourist who comes here is not only coming for nostalgia reasons – which are very important, of course, and they are very important, as you can imagine – but also comes to experience something authentic.”

In this context, he added that “that’s why we are here, because there is nothing more authentic than the Acropolis and this side of Athens, Plaka. But, trekking and climbing and diving can also be an authentic experience. It is also all of these things that have given Greece’s tourism a greater reach beyond the souvlaki and the sea. That’s what the Australian audience will appreciate and that’s what we’re going to highlight with this effort.”