Rise in tourism ‘not a given’
For Greek tourism, 2024 is a landmark year with new highs in arrivals and receipts; however, in no case should the future of Greek tourism be taken for granted unless the necessary steps are taken to optimally manage destinations, improve infrastructure, further attract investment, increase employment and ensure the sustainability of the tourism product.
This was emphasized by the president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Yiannis Paraschis, at its annual conference on Thursday. He set the goal of sustainable, competitive and socially responsible tourism that will be able to overcome chronic structural bottlenecks, modern challenges such as geopolitical tensions and long-term problems such as the climate crisis.
During the conference, the need to increase productivity in the entire Greek economy and to improve the functioning of institutions such as the judiciary was also emphasized. Aegean Airlines Executive Chairman Eftichios Vassilakis stressed that tourism operates complementary to a very large part of the rest of the economy, while expressing the view that increasing productivity is also related to the ability to increase the size of Greek businesses so that they can invest, increase their staff and boost exports.
Talking to Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) President Spyros Theodoropoulos, Vassilakis noted the need to improve the so-called structural competitiveness, that is, address problems such as the acceleration of the time for the delivery of justice and the restoration of legal certainty, which, as he stated, was tested by issues such as the developments regarding the unconstitutionality of the building regulations in force for 10 years. The discussion also highlighted the need to increase the dividend of value that Greek tourism produces for employees, something that requires both the retraining of personnel and the reduction of taxes and deductions imposed on labor.
Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni explained the strategy and initiatives for sustainable tourism development so that Greece can emerge “as a global model of quality, authenticity and sustainability.” She also presented the globally innovative system for classifying hotels and tourism accommodation based on their environmental footprint, developed by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels and the Technical Chamber of Greece.
