“Tourism unites the Greeks,” Alternate Minister of Tourism Elena Kountoura said on Wednesday in her address to the Hospitality Forum and Awards conference. “The Greek tourism is on good course,” she said quoting Bank of Greece’s figures according to which tourist arrivals rose 45 percent in first quarter and underlined that the ministry’s aim is the extension of the tourism season. Referring to the sector’s professionals, she said that the ministry is trying to unlock European funds that will be allocated to the development of private investments. At the same time, the ministry is moving on the promotion of alternative tourism as well as to the opening of new markets that will invigorate tourist inflow to Greece. On his part, TUI Hellas managing director Mihalis Mavropoulos said that TUI will bring 2.2 million tourists to Greece in 2015 adding that “these numbers could have skyrocketed. Greece’s target should be 35 million tourists in order to compete with Turkey on equal terms.” (Source: ANA-MPA)