Hotel Chamber: Senior Tourism Can Combat Seasonality In Greece

Hellenic Chamber of Hotels President Yiorgos Tsakiris

The most important parameter to reduce Greece’s seasonality is to increase the flow of senior tourists to the country as the specific group of travelers make trips during the off-season, according to the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Yiorgos Tsakiris.

In a recent interview to the Dimokratiki tis Rodou (a local newspaper on Rhodes), Mr. Tsakiris said that for more senior tourists to choose Greece for their holidays, they must have access to appropriate medical care and facilities through tourism enterprises.

A recent study conducted by the Research Institute for Tourism (ITEP) and commissioned by the hotel chamber, showed that senior tourism could develop into an essential factor for the lengthening of the tourism season in Greece. By 2030, it is said that senior tourists will constitute 24 percent of the international tourism market.

The hotel chamber’s president added that Greece’s seasonality problem can also be solved through the development of other forms of tourism such as congress and medical.

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According to Mr. Tsakiris, arrival numbers in Greece may be booming this season, but businesses must prosper as well for the country to be considered a winner in tourism.

The hotel chamber’s president said that the big challenge this year is for the season to end and hotels to be in better shape than they were during the same period in 2013.

More into the interview, Mr. Tsakiris commented that the new tourism bill is “a positive bill” that comes to smooth out problems of the past.

He also announced that a local branch of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels would open soon on Rhodes.