“Everything points to a dynamic summer with positive prospects. We expect the 2023 season to be better than the previous years”, says the vice-president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Christina Tetradis, in an interview granted to “d”.
He notes that businessmen and the state apparatus invested in increasing arrivals and receipts and that from the achievement of this common goal everyone will win, the tourists, the workers, the businessmen, the country, since “Tourism in Greece is everyone’s business us”!
According to the vice-president of XEE, X. Tetradis, the Greek tourism product has made leaps in competitiveness and quality, which is recorded internationally in various ways and reinforces once again the willingness of professionals to offer high-quality services.
• Mrs. Tetradis, we are at the start of the new tourist season. How do you think things will develop for Greek tourism? Will it be a better year in terms of arrivals and receipts?
Everything points to a dynamic summer with positive prospects. We expect the 2023 season to be better than previous years in terms of tourism, having invested all of us, entrepreneurs and government machinery, so that our fruits bear fruit, to increase arrivals and the size of receipts as a result. In this goal the public, in this partnership everyone wins, the tourists, the workers, the entrepreneurs, the country.
Tourism in Greece is the business of all of us as we say in XEE. An important factor that is expected to contribute, among other things, to the extension of the tourist season is the implementation of new infrastructure projects in tourism.
It is very important that as a country we are very high in the preferences of all travelers through our operation in the last 2 years, having shown as a country perhaps the biggest post-covid recovery worldwide
Athens Airport’s passenger traffic during February 2023 reached 1.36 million, up 62.4% compared to 2022 levels.
In Zakynthos we already started on March 28 the first flight of the season by Easy Jet with 108 passengers starting from Bristol and on Friday the first flight from London will take place. The British market is at the top of the list for our island as it is known.
From the ITB tourism exhibition in Berlin, we saw that all markets seem to be moving upward, including the Greek market.
However, we see a change in customers who are now more selective in wanting to experience and discover the destination on all its levels and are also willing to spend more money on the destinations they choose for their holidays.
• Are there new challenges for the tourism and hospitality industry in the post-covid era? Are the energy crisis and increased operating costs testing the viability and functionality of hotels?
After the Covid era, the energy crisis and the increased operating costs are the new challenge that the tourism industry has to face.
It is not only the energy itself, which has increased by up to 80%, but also the indirect costs. In FMCG we see increases of more than 30%, in the cost of packages, in all consumables and in staples such as bread and meat.
It seems that the energy costs of businesses will continue to be a constant brake on the activities of the entrepreneur. Undoubtedly it was and still is a serious factor burdening the expenses of a hotel.
For this reason, hotel companies tried to anticipate the season and find ways of alternative forms of energy to be able to cope with the increased costs. However, having experienced how sensitive tourism is, after a pandemic, a war and an energy crisis that are still plaguing us, we keep a question mark to be sure that something else will not be in front of us.
• More than 1 in 5 positions in hotels were not filled in 2022. The phenomenon of the lack of workers is expected to be intense in this year’s period. What is the root of the problem and how can it be addressed?
The labor market is not a problem only in 2023. The phenomenon of worker shortage exists in the last five years. It got stronger during the corona virus period. Then many tourism workers left or changed professions. In cooperation with the Ministry of Immigration Policy we want to see if we can bring workers from other countries or people who are in our country as economic immigrants. We are trying to sign international agreements. Last year there were hotels that did not open departments due to lack of staff.
The phenomenon of staff shortage is not something that exists only in Greece. Shortages in the Mediterranean are recorded at 700,000 jobs. Due to the pandemic, we saw that a large part left Greece. A large part looked for other jobs, because the pandemic also created new fields of work, which work all year round, instead of being seasonal. Basically Greece has seasonal tourism. It is a very small percentage, which works all year round. Also, another part decided to open their own businesses, especially in catering, hoping that at least they would work, but by working for themselves, they would make more money.
• I would like you to tell us about the initiative of XEE together with Marketing Greece for the promotion of the “Greek Breakfast”. What is the goal of this action? Do you think that there are aspects of the Greek tourism product that should be highlighted through strategic alliances of the relevant bodies?
The primary objective was of course the promotion of the Greek tourist product by supporting the gradual increase in the number of visitors annually and the upgrading of this experience as well as the extroversion of Greece through its promotion.
The “Greek Breakfast”, an innovation of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, is a tool for promoting and strengthening our cultural self-confidence and extroversion in order to highlight our unique culinary culture.
It puts Greek gastronomy at the center of the tourist experience. It connects the primary sector with Tourism, strengthening the Greek economy, the small producer and supporting the Greek Hotel.
Gastronomy has dynamically joined the part of the travel experience. XEE, through the Hellenic Breakfast and through the institution of Boutique Hotels, aims at a special product, which will be of quality and will also attract a different market.
ITEP’s research records that more than one in four hotels has embraced the action of the “Greek Breakfast” initiative, which directly connects the industry with the primary sector, and half of them have received the corresponding certification, highlighting the Hellenic Hotel as the best ambassador at the service of quality primary production and Greek gastronomy.
The Hotel Chamber of Greece collaborates with agencies and businesses to build the national tourism strategy and to define our culinary diplomacy, acting as an engine of development at national and global level.
• In closing, Ms. Tetradis, how competitive would you say the Greek tourism product is? Where does it excel and where does it fall short of the competition? Briefly describe to us what the Road Map towards the future of Greek tourism that the XEE has drawn up…
The Greek tourist product has made leaps compared to previous years, in terms of competitiveness and quality. This is recorded internationally in various ways and re-enforces the willingness of professionals to offer high quality services.
The Greek tourist product excels in the competitive “sun-sea” package, the rich cultural and historical heritage, the important and internationally known gastronomy, the preservation of the authenticity of the Greek countryside and the upgrading of the country’s hotel potential. On the other hand, it lags behind in the existence of infrastructure for sustainable support, in alternative forms of tourism, in the dependence on tour operators, in the overconcentration of tourism in specific destinations, in the absence of a collective effort and cooperation mentality and in the small percentage of workers specialized in tourism studies.
In order to support hotel businesses in the new challenges of sustainable development, X.E.E. in collaboration with ITEP, carried out a special survey of the energy/environmental profile of Greek hotels and submitted to the competent Ministries the present proposals for the financing of actions from the Recovery Fund.
Our goal is to cooperate in the upgrade of the Hellenic Hotel, supporting the Hotelier to be informed, to cooperate, to head towards development and modernization. We make synergies, alliances with common goals, we work tirelessly all together, having a vision to project our country to the outside, to become extroverted and by inviting the tourist coming to Greece to offer him a high quality and aesthetic life experience fulfilling every tourist promise which we gave him.