Industry Reports & Trends

The decision making process for most business enterprises and for the formation of a general economic sector policy, such as a tourism policy, begins with the attempt to obtain as much data as possible.

The Attica hotel owners association met with the head of Hellenic Tourism Properties recently to discuss the construction of a convention center at the old Athens International Airport at Hellenikon. When and if completed, the center will accommodate 8,000 participants. A hotel will also be built.

Foreign tourism concerns owe their Greek counterparts more than two billion euros for tourism services rendered, according to recent press reports. Although most of the debt concerns 2003, some has been carried over from previous years.

The battlefield lines are being drawn in the evolving online corporate travel arena. Players positioned at the brink of head-to-head combat, as well as those scuffling behind the front lines, are engaged in an intriguing mix of cooperation and competition. Many are devising unconventional strategies — even partnering with opponents — to infiltrate the online corporate travel space and stake a claim on this promising territory.

The Greek tourism sector, struggling to defend its share of the market against cheaper rivals such as Turkey and other Mediterranean nations, is eager to stretch its season beyond the summer months and become more than a sun-and-sea paradise for holidaymakers that are on a budget.

Greece’s tourism sector continued to fall further behind its foreign competitors during the first nine-month period of this year, according to the latest report published by the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasting.

According to figures recently compiled by the Russian Institute of Statistics, the Russian outbound travel market continues to grow. Over 20 million people travelled for business or leisure in 2002 …

By 2010 the Greek tourism sector could create some 150,000 new jobs and thus cover 35% of today’s unemployed, according to a study released last month by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

The recent increase in new hotels in the Attica area is responsible for the reduction in overnights by member units of the Attica Hoteliers Association, according to the Academy of Tourism Research and Studies.

Tourism has increased by more than 100 percent between 1990 and 2000 in the world`s biodiversity hotspots, causing threat to the areas, the Conservation International (CI) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said in a recent press release.