Greece targets tourism in 50-billion-euro to push state asset push

ATHENS: Tourism, a tried and tested income source for Greece, is being primed once again to help the cash-strapped country deal with a debt mountain of over 300 billion euros and dispel fears of bankruptcy.

A five-year privatisation drive worth 50 billion euros ($68 billion) was announced this month in a bid to bolster the crisis-hit economy, which was placed under EU-IMF supervision last year in return for a large rescue loan.

The Socialist government of George Papandreou has so far earmarked a dozen state properties for "exploitation", a term meaning long-term leases but not outright sale according to officials.

The list is headed by the holy grail of dormant Greek property, the 550-hectare former Athens airport at Hellenikon, a lucrative coastal expanse to the south of the capital.

Parts of the sprawling site have been abandoned for a decade. Others briefly hosted sports in new facilities erected for the Athens 2004 Olympics that later also fell into disuse.

The government is now trying to interest investors from Qatar in a project to turn Hellenikon into a multi-purpose park, with advice from Josep Acebillo, the Spanish architect who helped transform Barcelona's waterfront.

Other properties to be pitched to investors include a marina in the affluent Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni and coastal real estate in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, the northern peninsula of Halkidiki and the picturesque island of Rhodes, all of them destinations already popular with tourists.

"These are the properties that will be promoted in the coming period," a government source told AFP, adding: "How fast they are developed depends on how ready the related state services are."

Tourism insiders have heard this all before. The question now, they note, is whether the government will fulfil its pledge to eliminate red tape and create a 'fast track' process to facilitate investors.

A previous drive to lease sports stadiums dating from the Athens 2004 Olympics to commercial developers made little headway against Greece's ponderous bureaucracy. Some found a post-Games commercial or entertainment use but others remain boarded up.

"We have heard development plans for years," says George Telonis, chairman of the Hellenic association of travel and tourist agencies (Hatta), one of the sector's main lobby groups in Greece.

"The climate has changed but we need to see projects carried out," he adds.

Mired in debt and a growing recession, Greece has cast a wide net for foreign investors in recent weeks with emphasis on China, the Arab world, Israel and even old rivals Turkey.

Diplomatic efforts to improve ties with Israel after decades of frosty relations were rewarded last year with a 200-percent increase in arrivals to 250,000 visitors, according to officials.

Arrivals from Russia also went up 50 percent in 2010 after the government relaxed visa requirements, the tourism ministry said this month.

Greece almost went bankrupt last April when concerns about its ailing economy pushed its borrowing costs through the roof, and had to be rescued by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund with a massive loan.

"Development can only come through tourism, this is the only industry in Greece," says Telonis.

"We have been hearing about this 'fast track' process for five months and there hasn't been a single investment project so far."

"The only one, Astakos, did not progress," he adds, referring to a Qatari energy investment in western Greece that foundered last year.

The Greek government in September signed a memorandum with Qatar concerning investment in the Greek tourism, transport, infrastructure, real estate and energy sectors. No projects beyond Astakos were identified at the time.

Part of the problem is that state property in Greece is still governed by an administrative maze.

Not only is ownership spread out among a handful of state agencies and several ministries, but a recent study by a think-tank found that the government has no reliable inventory on properties it nominally controls.

"The Greek state literally does not know what it owns" said the study by the Istame think-tank which is close to the ruling Socialists.

"There is no central control and hundreds of hectares fall victim to encroachment", it added.

Less than 20 percent of land nominally belonging to the public real estate corporation (KED), one of the main state agencies, is currently free for exploitation, the Istame study found.