The ministry, the GNTO and the multinational
Under pressure from the avalanche of accusations, Deputy Development Minister Christos Theodorou sent, over two weeks ago, a letter to the Association of Greek Time-Sharing Holiday Businesses, which lists the accusations and asks that the law be upheld and «that the quality of services provided and customer service be maintained after the sale as well.» The association is housed in the same building as RCI Hellas, the international time-sharing company. According to RCI’s Managing Director Manikis, «We are a system of reservations that incorporates into its network hotels that also work with the time-sharing system. We do not have any agreements with the sales companies. Either way though, you can’t tar all the companies with the same brush. It is a specific group of companies that has created the problem.» He adds: «The sales companies might be selling vacuum cleaners tomorrow. I think that a tragic mistake was made several years ago when the GNTO [Greek National Tourism Organization] issued operating permits to all these companies. It turned them into tourist operators when, in fact, they do rentals. The GNTO, hearing of the charges, never paid any attention to them. But what do you expect when the president of the GNTO, at an event hosted by a specific time-sharing business, dwelt on what a good firm it was when this company is facing the greatest number of charges…»
