The Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Ieronymos met with the new Tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni on Thursday 13th July, at the premises of the Archdiocese of Athens. The main topic of the meeting was the updating of the Cooperation Protocol on Pilgrimage Tourism signed between the Church of Greece and the Tourism ministry on 13th January 2013.

The new Tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni, reprising a role she held under the Samaras government between 2012 and 2015, met the Archbishop of Greece Ieronymos on July 13th to discuss religious tourism. Photo: Facebook.

In a posting on her official Facebook page, the Tourism minister described the conversation as taking place in an “excellent atmosphere”. There was discussion of the joint drafting of a strategic plan for the overseas promotion – with measurable targets – of religious monuments, places of pilgrimage, holy relics and all the important pilgrimages of faith in Greece. The need for updating the reception facilities at the country’s monasteries so that they could accommodate pilgrims of both sexes was also discussed.

The minister and the Archbishop also looked at the possibility of creating a new framework for active collaboration between the Tourism ministry and the Church of Greece and the revival of the Joint Coordination Committee, with the aim of successfully implementing the action plan for the promotion of Religious Tourism in Greece and abroad.