ATHENS – In another move aimed at getting more tourists although there are so many on some islands the infrastructure can’t handle it, Greece will spend 160 million euros ($159.35 million) to fix ports and marinas.

The Secretary-General for Tourism Policy and Development, Olympia Anastasopoulou made the announcement and said it was done to increase professional boating and recreational activities in Greece, said SchengenVisaInfo.com.

While Greece has one of the longest coastlines in the European Union and is famed for its maritime skills, relatively little effort had been made to concentrate on it as a way to bring more tourists.

Anastasopoulou said the ministry wants to move away from the usual sun-sand-summer-island model and have more sustainable tourism year round and the structures to deal with it.

She spoke during the Olympia Forum III, organized by the Delphi Economic Forum in partnership with Patris newspaper.

“Unfortunately, only 37 tourism ports are operating in Greece, out of a total of 168. We wish to change that.… We are now updating Greece’s national policy and proceeding with legislative amendments in order to simplify and accelerate procedures,” she said back in April.