Gerasimos Fokas

President,
The Hellenic Chamber of Hotels

Philoxenia 2003 greeting.

After the terrorist activity of September 11 in the USA, a series of incidents have created unstable and intense competitive conditions within the global and European tourism market. Major European tour operators, within the framework of an even more aggressive policy, now exercise additional pressure for a reduction in hotel prices.

Our present situation, for the moment, is not particularly encouraging. The pricing of our products has become an increasingly more and more difficult subject. Today, hotel enterprises that have managed to hold 2004 prices at the same level as 2003, or have even managed to obtain a slight increase, have succeeded in formulating a satisfactory pricing policy.

It is understandable that all this concerns us, worries us and creates an immediate need for the formulation of a scientific, proven study that would research in depth the present situation and propose a series of measures. The public and private sectors must be in a continued process of research on the changes taking place on the international stage. And they must be ready to carve out, and naturally to implement, policies that would aim not only to adapt to the new situation but also to examine the results brought on by our policies. The close cooperation of the public and private sectors must be the foundation stone in such an uninterrupted effort. The Hellenic Chamber of Hotels awaits the results on the aforementioned research and with this as a base will proceed with announcements and actions for the implementation of specific measures.