{"id":7592,"date":"2022-07-20T22:48:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T20:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/alexandros-vasilikos-na-schediasoume-to-avrio-tou-ellinikou-tourismou\/"},"modified":"2023-06-05T17:58:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:58:20","slug":"alexandros-vasilikos-na-schediasoume-to-avrio-tou-ellinikou-tourismou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/alexandros-vasilikos-na-schediasoume-to-avrio-tou-ellinikou-tourismou\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEXANDROS VASILIKOS : Planning the future of Greek tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"
INTERVIEW BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC HOSPITALITY OF GREECE, Mr. ALEXANDER BASILICUS, <\/strong><\/h6>\n
AT <\/strong>GRTRAVELLER AND PANAGIOTA SURTZI<\/strong><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Exploiting every possibility and every opportunity to support the needs of the Greek family is very important at this time,” says the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (H.E.H.), Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos in an interview with grtraveller, noting that it is necessary to discuss ways to boost domestic tourism while at the same time untie destinations from the exclusive “August” holiday model. Mr. Vassilikos also talks about the challenges that Greek hotels face due to the current conditions and advises Greek travellers to be particularly careful with the misleading practices of online holiday platforms.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the first tourist season since the coronavirus pandemic without the restrictive measures that were previously in place. What does this mean for Greek hotels both in terms of occupancy and revenue and in terms of how customers perceive the “relaxation” of health protocols?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People want to travel and reconnect, after the “lolcadas” and the unprecedented restrictions of the pandemic. This global trend is reflected in the demand that Greece is experiencing. The indications since the start of the season are such that they justify the assessment that we will have an overall positive quantitative sign. However, we must bear in mind that there are geographical variations and that tourist traffic is not recovering in a horizontal manner everywhere. That is why at X.E.E. we avoid making predictions and focus on field research so that we can get a real picture from the data we collect. Beyond that, hoteliers will do our best, as we always do, to achieve the best we can, fully aware of the importance of tourism for the economy, which, while trying to close its wounds from the unprecedented conditions created by the pandemic, is also facing new major global challenges.<\/p>\n

Do you think that the war conflicts in Eastern Europe, with their impact on the global economy and tourism, have a negative effect on this year’s tourist season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tourism is undoubtedly affected. Both directly but mainly indirectly, because of its economic side effects. The direct impact concerns the loss of the Russian and Ukrainian markets which, although they do not have a large share of the tourist flow to our country, are nevertheless important for specific destinations and businesses. The big problem, however, is that the continuation of the war, in addition to the huge humanitarian costs, exacerbates the problems of the global supply chain and energy costs. Thus, we are facing a price explosion in energy as well as in raw materials and food. The surveys carried out by ITEP on behalf of the HSE show that the hotel industry is facing energy costs that have increased by more than 100%, as well as the cost of food supplies that are rising exponentially and have already exceeded 35-40%. Under these circumstances and with package prices stuck at 2019 levels and the losses of the previous two years, you can see how business sustainability for many hotels has become a very difficult equation.<\/p>\n

What is your assessment of how domestic tourism will move this year? Are there any thoughts on the implementation of actions to stimulate domestic tourism, which is the main source of hotel revenue for certain destinations in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I told you, for the last two years we have avoided making forecasts in the XEE. Regarding domestic tourism, the initiative of the Ministry of Tourism for the renewed and financially enhanced programme “Tourism for All” is positive. The programme is funded by the NSRF and involves 200,000 beneficiaries who will receive a digital card along the lines of the “Freedom Pass”.<\/p>\n

\"\"The use of every possibility and every opportunity to support the needs of the Greek family is very important at this time. On the other hand, the subsidised model is not sustainable in the long term and cannot of course be multiplied… Unfortunately, we have not developed the model and the framework for domestic tourism. Efforts that started like the voucher have not been continued despite the proposals of the X.E.E. to extend and make permanent this measure. The possibility for the private sector to be able to finance tax-free holidays for all the country’s workers was and remains a cost-free measure which undoubtedly stimulates domestic tourism at no cost to the public purse. It is also extremely important to discuss ways of freeing us from the almost exclusive ‘August’ holiday model. Incentives and decisions that will shift interest towards alternative destinations of a thematic nature with a geographical spread. I will also reiterate here that we need to stop looking at today but plan for tomorrow. So not how tourism will be today but how it should be in 5 and 10 years’ time!<\/p>\n

Digital booking platforms are also very popular among Greek travellers, who prefer them to book their accommodation and travel. However, recently there has been a complaint by X.E.E. about unfair practices of these digital tools. What would you advise Greeks to look out for when booking through Online Travel Agents?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed, X.E.E. filed a complaint with the Competition Commission for unfair practices by digital platforms, which are abusing their dominant position in the online booking market.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, apart from the non-compliance with previous decisions of the Competition Commission regarding the arbitrary rate clauses still imposed by Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), special emphasis is placed on the methods of misleading advertising that have been developed and continue to be used through the online searches of users, as certified by a relevant survey of the Misleading Advertising Observatory that monitors and records these practices on behalf of X.E.E. Knowing what you are buying and paying for is a consumer user’s right. And in this direction is reinforced by the new Digital Markets Act ( Digital Markets Act – DMA) that has been adopted and is now in force in the European Union, vindicating HOTREC’s decade-long effort to bring digital platforms into compliance with a defined framework of obligations and prohibitions.<\/p>\n

What advice would you also give to those who are “oscillating” between Hotel and short-term rental accommodation (Airbnb type)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We hoteliers are not among those who refuse to accept the way things are going and that the sharing economy is here to stay. So welcome. But it’s one thing for an individual to do a short-term lease on a property and it’s another to buy apartment buildings and pretend they are hotels without being hotels. No conditions, no certifications and no safeguards for the quality of the services provided. It makes no sense to have an overcrowded hotel on the one hand and a completely unregulated short-term rental on the other. We need to do what all the top European destinations have done and stop being the only western country without a defined and regulated framework for the sharing economy. Our only weapon against inflation and accuracy is growth. But a prerequisite for growth is healthy competition, especially when it comes to the hospitality sector, on which the country puts its hopes every year. But for hospitality to be able to deliver what it can to the economy and society, it must at least not be undermined in unfair ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC HOSPITALITY OF GREECE, Mr. ALEXANDER BASILICUS, AT GRTRAVELLER AND PANAGIOTA SURTZI   “Exploiting every possibility and every opportunity to support the needs of the Greek family is very important at this time,” says the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (H.E.H.), Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos in an interview…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epikairotita-en","category-prosopikotites-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10515,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7592\/revisions\/10515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grtraveller.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}