Greek Hotel Chamber Calls For Tourism Development Interventions

Hellenic Chamber of Hotels President Yiorgos Tsakiris

The president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Yiorgos Tsakiris, recently placed emphasis on a series of interventions that – if implemented – could give Greek tourism and Greek hoteliers further momentum.

While delivering a speech during the chamber’s third general assembly held this month, Mr. Tsakiris referred to the following five required interventions:

• Enrichment of the tourism product with new themes and profitable forms of tourism. According to the hotel chamber, this will tackle seasonality and also give a boost to Greek destinations that are suffering from the sharp decline of domestic tourism.

• Upgrade of hotel services. The chamber believes that the country’s hotel services and infrastructure must be upgraded through evaluation and certification in accordance with international standards. A Greek Quality Code for tourism is currently under development by the chamber.

• Support of Greek hotels and other lodges. “Greek hotels deserve special attention as the country’s tourism depends on them. Greek hotels and Camping are the main protagonists of the country’s tourism, regardless of their size or capacity,” the chamber stated.

• Determine the tourism development model. The chamber believes that the time has arrived to launch “a fruitful and constructive discussion” on world tourism trends and focus on the development of Greece’s tourism product, family hotels and clusters.

• Promote Greece by investing in resources. According to the chamber, the Tourism Ministry and Greek National Tourism Organization must be supported with the necessary resources to invest in tourism. “Appearances are everything… A comprehensive campaign for the promotion of Greek tourism remains a necessity as it is essentially an investment,” the chamber said.