SETE to Provide Sustainability Toolkit to Greek Tourism SMEs

The Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) will launch a special program to offer tourism enterprises structured support to transition to sustainable business practices, the confederation’s president, Yiannis Paraschis, said on Tuesday.

Opening SETE’s annual conference, this year titled “Reframing Tourism”, Paraschis said that the year 2023 clearly showed that the competitiveness and economic viability of the Greek tourism product and entrepreneurship depend to a large extent on the dimensions of social and environmental sustainability.

“Especially on the extremely critical issue of the environment, tourism businesses still have significant ground to cover,” he said, citing data from a recent study by Deloitte – INSETE on the sustainability of the Greek tourism market.

According to the study, 73 percent of Greek tourism enterprises have not set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 2030, while only 20 percent provide training to their staff on sustainability issues.

“These deficiencies are particularly noticeable in small and medium-sized enterprises with revenues below 10 million euros, which constitute the majority in the sector,” SETE’s president said, stressing that the creation of a sustainable and environmentally responsible tourism business is the “only way forward if we want Greek tourism to continue its positive course and the Greece brand to remain at the top”.

Paraschis underlined that SETE, in its role as the tourism sector’s representative and a social partner, “must be at the forefront of this effort”.

Sustainability toolkit for SMEs

At this point, Paraschis said that SETE’s Board of Directors has already approved the creation of a special program to help tourism enterprises shift towards sustainable practices that prioritize sustainability and zero pollution.

The program will provide a methodology and tools that will provide know-how and guide tourism businesses towards the implementation of best practices through specific steps.

SETE’s president said the program will initially run through a pilot phase on a specific sample of enterprises before rolling out officially in 2024.

“This industry self-regulatory initiative is not only a necessity but also an important business choice,” he said, at the same time pointing out that the green transition and environmentally sustainable entrepreneurship will in many cases require initial investments and costs.

“This effort should be supported in practice both by the green financing of the banking system and by simple procedures from the Recovery Fund and other financial tools specifically for small and medium-sized tourism businesses,” he said.