Greek Yachting Professionals Hope for a Strong Tourism Comeback in 2022

Greek yachting professionals appear optimistic about the sector’s performance in 2022, despite the emerge of the Omicron variant which has led to global travel restrictions for Covid-19.

Although difficult to predict due to the spread of Omicron, the leadership of the Hellenic Professional Yacht Owners Bareboat Association (known as SITESAP in Greek) expects increasing vaccination rates and the Covid-19 health protocols to support the sector’s recovery efforts in 2022.

“We hope that Omicron won’t cause problems to the same extend as other variants in the past two years,” SITESAP President Paris – Georgios Loutriotis told reporters during an online press event on Monday.

“We anticipate a positive performance for 2022 with figures exceeding 65-70 percent of 2019 levels. This will allow us to achieve balance and initiate a new era for marine tourism in Greece,” he added.

According to Loutriotis, Greece’s yachting sector was severely affected by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, with main performance metrics reaching 25 percent and 50-55 percent of 2019 levels, respectively.

Established in 1997, SITESAP represents 350 members operating 2,500 professional yachts of a length of up to 20 meters throughout Greece.

The 3rd Athens Yacht Festival returns

During the online press conference, SITESAP executives also announced the return of the 3rd Athens Yachting Festival 2022.

The festival will take place at the Kallithea marina during 7-10 April after a year of absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The premium event will offer the opportunity to yachting professionals, shipowners, brokers, representatives of tourism-related companies, public and private organizations to meet, exchange views, network and explore partnership opportunities.

The event will include:

– the Yachting – Sea Tourism Festival & Exhibition that will feature over 100 sailing yachts, monohulls, catamarans and all kinds of bareboat

– the 1st International Yachting Conference with participants from all over the world

– B2B meetings between Greek yachting professionals and foreign tour operators

– parallel events.

Furthermore, the festival will promote coastal and island destinations, various forms of marine tourism and sports (fishing, water skiing, windsurfing, kite surfing, etc).

The 3rd Athens Yacht Festival is organized for a third year by SITESAP and the Mact Media Group under the auspices of the Region of Attica, the Tourism Ministry and the Greek National Tourism Organzation, among other organizations.

More information is available at https://yachtingfestivals-athens.com.