Greece is the Destination is an initiative by Energizing Greece which focuses on bringing together people from different industries and sectors to support and promote the brand of ‘Greece’ and to transform it into a global destination for investments, tourism and other actions. Our Vice President, Elena Athanassoula, commenting on the initiative writes the following:

I start writing this article with mixed feelings like many other Greeks at the present time. I believe that I am a person of progress, of organization, of building a prosperous tomorrow, step by step, stone by stone. With small daily battles, with small victories and defeats, to achieve a vision in the end.

Greece is the destination. Greece: The comparison with other destinations, with other characteristics, very attractive as well, is demanding. After all, we are not the navel of the earth that has built our corresponding arrogance, which we all know so well, and we must irrevocably leave behind. Destination: it has the meaning of “decision” by the one who chooses us, of the will to come to our country, of preference.

Greece is the destination. So Greece has to be qualified over the rest and it should be a conscious decision to put it on one’s personal Google map and press “start” to reach. And this destination should not only reward the person for this decision but also excite him/her.

This takes a lot of work. Daily action towards a clear, agreed direction, common to all that we want to represent as a destination, as a country, as living material. This is a systemic effort, therefore with the necessary condition of cooperation between us, in order to achieve the result that we have set as a national goal.

All of the above, beyond goal setting, cannot be done without two important element: our own decision and the discipline in it. Our own decision requires belief in the goal, we ourselves believe in it and above all in us, in ourselves. Discipline comes right after. Discipline in what is agreed upon, discipline in daily progress towards the goal, with processes, with measurable results and performance. With self-discipline. Not discipline in the sense of enforcement. This is something that has been resolved in the agreement on the target. After all, that’s what the word itself means in Greek: I have faith in the principle/goal.

Greece is the destination. I think about all of the above in the context of recent events and they become even more important. In order for Greece to become a destination, we must all look within ourselves and put our own personal destination, on our own personal Google map.

And we can. We did it in 2004, the most recent major national event of global reach and appeal. We were proud of the Olympic Games that we successfully hosted. Because we were proud of our history coming to meet us today. We achieved this because we followed procedures and specific instructions within a national framework for a goal and a purpose. A goal and purpose that had a positive context, a positive sign, positive messages, a positive footprint.

So let us now write our modern history with a lot of hard work to recover the lost ground. With faith in our good self, with discipline, with cooperation, all committed to the same good goal. In prosperity. Because this is the only way we will convince in a huge competition that Greece is the destination. The (New) Greece is the destination. Because we want it to be. And we can achieve it.