Greece’s Alexandros Vassilikos Elected HOTREC President

Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) President Alexandros Vassilikos has been elected president of HOTREC, the umbrella association for Hotels, Restaurants, & Cafes in Europe.

Vassilikos was elected unanimously during a meeting in Stockholm and takes over from Jens Zimmer Christensen.

“It is a great honor but also a great responsibility to assume the duties of president of HOTREC with the trust of European colleagues. An election that acknowledges the systematic work by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels in representing the industry at a European level and Greece’s leading role in European tourism,” said Vassilikos after the election.

HOTREC is active in 36 countries through its 47 national associations and represents Europe’s hospitality industry.

“Hospitality is a major comparative advantage for the European economy, accounting for 12 million employees in over 2,000,000 businesses, 90 percent of which are small and medium-sized hotels, restaurants and cafes. As is the case in Greece, hospitality is the backbone of small and medium entrepreneurship in Europe,” he added.

“At a time of massive changes in hospitality, it is our strategic priority to effectively and responsibly represent businesses in the industry in order to successfully address major issues such as inflationary pressures, energy costs and labor shortages as well as – unfortunately – the consequences of an ongoing, devastating war in Europe. At the same time, we are called on to lay the foundations for a ‘greener’ hospitality,” Vassilikos said.

Born in Athens in 1976, Vassilikos was first elected president to the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels in 2017. He  previously served as vice president and Athens-Attica & Argosaronic Hotel Association president. A year later, he was elected to HOTREC’s executive committee and re-elected to the same position in 2020.

Also chairman and CEO of AIROTEL Group of Hotels, which owns and manages six hotels in Athens, Patra and Kavala, Vassilikos was re-elected HCH president in 2021.