Greek Tourism Experts Hopeful About 2015

Photo © Dimitris Stavropoulos

Tourism professionals are optimistic that 2015 will be a fruitful year, expecting even more arrivals to the country compared to last year.

Attributing the positive trend to the implementation of a far-reaching tourism strategy, president of the Hellenic Federation of Hoteliers (HHF) Yiannis Retsos told the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels general assembly last week that it is not a random success story but one based on consistency and attention to quality.

Retsos said the strategy, based on a McKinsey study, involves investments amounting to 3.3 billion euros annually in infrastructure, hotels, marinas, etc. including an increase in the number of hotel beds from 770,000 today to 900,000 in the coming years.

Retsos told the Athens News Agency that in the period 2010-2014, 696 new hotels opened their doors to the public, 73 percent of which moved into the top three categories. According to chamber figures, the number of five star hotels in Greece has tripled since 1990 from 4.8 percent to 14.8 percent in 2014.

According to the general assembly results, bookings from Germany seem to have stopped, compared to a 15 percent rise in bookings from the UK with major losses estimated at approximately 50 percent expected from Ukrainian and Russian markets.

In the meantime, despite the favorable exchange rate, Turkey has upped its efforts and become strongly competitive.