Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-07-14

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] ND leader Mitsotakis calls on deputies to vote against new electoral law

[02] Inbound tourism down 4.6 pct in Jan-March

[03] Appeals court to announce verdict on drug ship 'Noor 1' on July 19

[01] ND leader Mitsotakis calls on deputies to vote against new electoral law

He outlined the basic lines of his opposition policy while at the same time criticised the government. "We are exercising a strict but responsible opposition policy. The political chart is changing and New Democracy's political lead is strong. This is due to the fact that a significant part of the society believes in New Democracy," he stated.

The past six months proved the government's inability to implement the memorandum signed, he stressed. Now we start to pay the cost of the 'proud' negotiation of (Prime Minister Alexis) Tsipras and (former Finance Minister Yannis) Varoufakis as well as that of current minister (Euclid) Tsakalotos, he added.

The government is implementing measures of 9 billion euros, he said adding that nobody has forced the government to take such measures.

Finally, Mitsotakis called on all "democratic deputies" from all parties to join their forces to prevent government's plans for changing the electoral law

[02] Inbound tourism down 4.6 pct in Jan-March

In particular, arrivals from Germany increased by 5.5% to 118 thousand and those from France by 11.8% to 40 thousand. Arrivals from the United Kingdom also increased, by 6.3% to 107 thousand. Finally, turning to non-EU28 countries, arrivals from Russia rose by 134.9% to 20 thousand and those from the United States increased by 28.9% to 62 thousand.

In January-March 2016, overnight stays in Greece totalled 9,786 thousand, up 5.7 pct from 9,263 thousand in January-March 2015. This reflected an increase of 23.4 pct in stays by residents of non-EU28 countries, as stays by residents of the EU28 fell by 2.5 pct.

Since 2012, the Bank of Greece conducts a cruise-specific survey in order to enrich the data collected through its Border Survey. In line with standard practice, detailed cruise data were collected for January-March 2016 from 16 Greek ports, covering 82.7 pct of all cruise ship arrivals.

Én the period under review, 150 cruise ship arrivals (January-March 2015: 119) and 189 thousand cruise passenger visits (January-March 2015: 124 thousand) were recorded. This survey revealed that 96.0 pct of all cruise passengers were transit visitors, with an average of 2 stopovers at Greek ports of call, virtually unchanged from a year earlier. In January-March 2016, total receipts from cruise passengers rose by 38.8 pct year-on-year to 14.4 million euros.

The surplus of the balance of travel services was 76 million euros in January-March 2016, down 3.8 pct from a surplus of 80 million in January-March 2015. This development is attributed to a smaller increase in travel receipts. The rise in travel receipts in January-March 2016 was mainly driven by an increase of 28 euros or 9.6 pct in average expenditure per trip (January-March 2016: 315, January-March 2015: 288), as non-resident arrivals declined by 4.6 pct.

In January-March 2016, travel receipts totalled 539 million euros, rising by 4.5 pct year-on-year.

[03] Appeals court to announce verdict on drug ship 'Noor 1' on July 19

The prosecutor has proposed that the main defendants in the case be found guilty of running an international criminal organization. Other defendants have been charged with aiding and abetting the alleged ring members.

The case has been linked to the mysterious deaths of six people involved in it and Greek authorities cooperated closely with foreign authorities to resolve it. The announcement will be made at the military courthouses in Rouf.

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