On Monday, 31 May 2021, the Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos welcomed the Ministers of Culture and Sports Mrs. Lina Mendoni and Tourism Mr. Haris Theoharis, in order to co-sign a Cooperation Memorandum regarding the development of Military Tourism in Greece, during a special ceremony, held in “Ioannis Kapodistrias” Hall.
The ceremony was also attended by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Mr. Alkiviadis Stefanis, the HNDGS/Chief General Konstantinos Floros, the HAFGS/Chief Lieutenant General Georgios Blioumis, the HAGS/Chief Lieutenant General Charalambos Lalousis and the HNGS/Chief Vice Admiral Stylianos Petrakis.
Through the Memorandum that has been signed, the Ministries of National Defence, Culture-Sports and Tourism coordinate their actions in order to give a boost to Military Tourism, focusing on the Athens War Museum. The main goals of the effort are the protection, the demonstration, the projection and the promotion of appreciation and visitability of every Museum, every collection and Monument of Military interest, through the history of all three Services of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force).
Military Tourism is a relatively new and rapidly developing kind of tourism worldwide and Greece has lots of sightseeing with regard to this specific category in the whole country, as well as from different time periods during the historic course of the Nation.
For these reasons the Memorandum is considered important, in order to project and use tourist monuments of military interest, museums, collections of mobile monuments and relics, fixed monuments and facilities, as well as sites all over the country, where important war events –with regard to the Greek History- have occurred (battles, naval battles, fights, etc), and as implied, along with their immediate anthropogenous and physical environment.
In his short address, the Minister of National Defence Mr. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos pointed out among other things:
“As the Political Leadership of the Ministry, we consider the co-signing of the Cooperation Memorandum among the Ministries of National Defence, Culture and Tourism, for the development of Military Tourism, an extremely interesting case, with huge margins of improvement and potential added value to the total of the cultural and tourist product of the country.
Today, we are signing this Cooperation Memorandum in order to protect, demonstrate, project and promote the appreciation and visitability of all Museums, Collections and Monuments of Military interest, subject to the Armed Forces responsibility. We are discussing with the Military Leadership the many important monuments we possess all over the Country, which-as a general feeling-are not projected as much as they should, in order to intrigue their visitability and become an attraction pole for people who want to visit the country, to see, among other things, historic sites, monuments, battle locations, endless reference points of the great and glorious Military History of Greece.
According to the Memorandum, the Ministry defines the War Museum as a coordination and implementation agency of the cooperation. From the first moment we tried to project especially the War Museum and the extremely critical role it could play regarding the development of this whole thinking. I believe that, under the current Command, a new pace has already been set, regarding the use of the Military Historic legacy of the country, through synergies, initiatives, actions, an unknown activity, I would say. The basic problem we traced is the absence of access to financing tools, so that the actions of the War Museum are promoted. I believe that through synergies that could be developed with your Ministries, having the War Museum as a central agency and with our contribution when possible, we could provide a solution to this problem, so that greater results are achieved.
Of course, the contribution of the Ministry of Culture and Sports is precious, providing consulting services. Besides, this Ministry is mainly responsible for projecting our cultural legacy. It can provide the know-how and the scientific contribution which are necessary to both achieve benefits through the tourist product and project the Military History.
As a responsible agency for this campaign of communication and projection of this action, the Ministry of Tourism is called to play a very important role. In accordance with the Memorandum, it takes care of the creation and upload of information data on the internet. Everybody understands the synergy that should be developed among the three Ministries, having as a catalyst the War Museum, to project another dimension of the tourist product.
Other countries take respective actions, with really visible results. The time has come in a sensible framework specified by the consulting contribution and the provision of a special scientific know-how by the Ministry of Culture to project this product as well”.
The Minister of Culture Mrs. Lina Mendoni stated:
“Today is a very important day, because we reach the end of a discussion, which began a year and a half ago, regarding the possibility of projecting military, historic and cultural infrastructures, of our Country. Historic-Military Tourism is about boosting the visitability of monuments and satisfying a big number of visitors from all over the world, who wish to visit facilities and sites, which played an important role in the history of the two World Wars and further than that. Greece has a large number of such sites.
>Through the cooperation of the three connected Ministries we must reinforce the projection of these sites and infrastructures for two reasons: First, for historic remembrance. We owe to pay the proper tribute and remember both the sites and the people been there at the specific moment, under specific conditions, contributing to the evolution of the historic course of our country.
>Second, and also important, is to project and promote these sites, so that our Country starts thriving regarding this type of special tourism.
Cultural and historic-military tourism are two types of tourism, with huge developmental dynamics and refer to the 40% of tourism as a whole. We are willing to work all together, so that this treasure of our country be projected and contribute both to the local and National Economy”.
Delivering an address, the Minister of Tourism Mr. Haris Theoharis pointed out:
“I consider the Cooperation Memorandum that we signed an extremely important step for the development of military tourism in Greece. The Ministry of Tourism, in close cooperation and continuous communication with the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Culture and Sports, first of all, honours the 200 year anniversary from the Greek Revolution, through another essential step: The establishment of an institutional infrastructure, so that Greece fosters military tourism, claiming a share from an arising tourist market.
Military Tourism is developing extremely fast at worldwide level and our country, due to its long lasting historic adventure, is full with monuments and sightseeing of war and military interest. The projection of the respective sites all over Greece will be incorporated in our effort of promoting new, modern and special types of tourism, the reinforcement of tourist arrival beyond the known destinations, and the extension of the tourist period as well”.
For the implementation of the Cooperation Memorandum, the three Ministries and the War Museum as a Coordination Agency and Agency of Cooperation’s Implementation will jointly set up a Comprehensive Plan of Demonstrating, Promoting and Projecting military tourism.
The basic fields of developing the joint actions are very briefly,
>Maintenance, restoration, long lasting preservation of monuments and relics of military nature and interest.
>Promotion of the scientific historic knowledge.
>Attraction and development of travels and visits, having military interest and the knowledge regarding historic remembrance of military and war events, data and regions.
>Continuous improvement of the more general tourist image of Greece as a destination with the potential of hosting military tourism activities.
The three Ministries join their forces for the production of the proper and specialised promoting and advertising material, the production of publications and audio-visual material, through the use of modern and innovative communication means and technologies.
Especially the Ministry of Tourism will take care of the creation, the formation and next the upload of the respective information data, including all relative useful information on the internet. The War Museum respectively will take care of the creation of a super-link, regarding the aforementioned material, in its official website, on one hand, to project actions relevant to the 200 year anniversary from the 1821 Greek Revolution and, on the other hand, to project all visiting museums, monuments and collections of military and war interest of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) etc.
