First Pan-European Agro-tourism Forum started its meeting in Northern Greece on Friday in bid to bring tourism into a new dimension and promote the balanced development of rural areas of Europe.

The forum is being held under the auspices of the tourism ministry, with the participation of journalists from 10 European countries, and tour operators specializing in agro-tourism.

Addressing the forum, Greek Tourism Minister Fani Palli- Petralia said that nature travel, or agro-tourism, is the cornerstone for a balanced and sustainable development of tourism in Europe.

Petralia stressed that the first Pan-European Agro-tourism Forum was opening up a new page in the already impressive development of this form of tourism in Greece, adding that agro- tourism comprised one of the most hopeful growth factors for Greek tourism and the balanced development of rural Greece.

She said that agro-tourism is a new momentum for tourism development and is directly linked with the primary production sector and the development of rural regions, given that it comprised the "human dimension" of tourism as opposed to " commercialization and mass tourism".

The minister said that Greece had vital need of a new wave of tourism development, stressing that tourism comprised a major comparative advantage of the country, and proper exploitation of that required planning, vision, new policies and new ideas.

Although the tourism development model followed by Greece in recent years had undoubtedly contributed much, today the tourism environment had changed and new destinations were required, capable of attracting significant numbers of visitors, she added.

Petralia announced that a bill would soon be tabled in parliament by her ministry, for the establishment of a Greek Nature Travel-Agro-tourism Organization, noting that one innovation of the bill was the concession of land by the agricultural development ministry for agro-tourism investments.

Source: Xinhua