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Anastasia Balezdrova

Contrary to the common concept, culture can bring profits, at that significant, as made clear by the forum on "Socio-economic impact of cultural projects", organized by the Greek Ministry of Culture in Athens. The survey results of Deloitte show that the investment in this sector has a very positive impact on the economy of Greece.

In particular, within five years, the added value from the implementation of 27 cultural projects, including 18 archaeological sites and 9 museums in the country, was over 1.5 billion euro. Researchers include in it the economic activity related to the object creation, the jobs and the wage costs. Therefore, sites the establishment of which amounted to 68 million euro in investment created that added value within five years.

According to researchers, 18% of the total positive result equal to 300 million euro was related to all the tourist activities that took place around the cultural sites. According to them, the cultural sites have the potential to further strengthen the economy, particularly in large urban centres that can serve a large number of tourists. The creation of city break destinations through various attractions and options for entertainment can attract a lot of tourists during the low summer season in Greece.

The results are confirmed by the success, in terms of cash, of the extended opening hours that were introduced this year in the 33 most popular archaeological sites and museums in Greece. The opening hours from 08:00 am to 08:00 pm seven days a week and the parallel appointment of additional staff led to an increase in the number of visitors and, respectively, in the turnover of the fund for income and archaeological resources.

According to the observatory to the fund, a 27% increase in attendance was reported from April to June and 21% in proceeds compared to the same period last year.

The pilot implementation of the programme will continue until the end of October when the contracts of 1,120 people, who were employed in order to increase the number of guards at archaeological sites, will expire.

First on the list of the sites with the highest attendance that does not include the Acropolis is Adrianos Library - one of the peripheral archaeological sites in the area of ​​Monastiraki in the centre of Athens. The increase in the quarter was 151%, reaching 245% in one of the months between April and June.

A noteworthy fact is the considerable increase in the visits to the renovated Archaeological Museum in Heraklion of Crete, where the increase in attendance was 103.58% and in proceeds 137.62%. A 96.61% increase in the number of visitors and 83.51% in proceeds was reported by the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, which was visited by nearly 26,282 people throughout 2013.

The White Tower in Thessaloniki with an 87.91% increase in the number of visitors and 81.58% in proceeds is high on the list as well as the architectural site Kerameikos in Athens with 62.40% more visitors and 68.74% more sold tickets. A significant increase, 138.48%, was reported in the number of tourists visiting Palamidi in Nafplio that did not affect the proceeds of the site, as they increased by only 61.35%. The explanation of this fact may lie in the low ticket price of 4 euro.

Ticket prices are to be considered by the Ministry of Culture, as a large number of studies in the field of tourism show that they are quite low. Indicative is the fact that with a ticket for 12 euro visitors can see some of the most important archaeological sites in Athens, namely, the Acropolis, the Theatre of Dionysus, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, the Library of Adrianos, Olympia and Kerameikos.

Positive results are reported for the visits to the Acropolis Museum, where the opening hours are extended anyway. In April-June 2014, it was visited by 393,633 people or by 71,153 more compared to last year.