The global brand of Greece and the challenges that have emerged from the continuous growth of tourism was the focus of the first panel of industry leaders at the two-day Reimagine Tourism conference, organized by Kathimerini.
“It is true that over the past 10-12 years, Greece has managed to build an exceptional tourist brand which has even gone beyond the reality of what the visitor experience is and this is indeed very positive. But this is where the risk also lies,” said Eftichios Vassilakis, Chairman of Aegean Airlines, and CEO of Autohellas Hertz, opening the debate in the “Opportunities and Risks for Greek Tourism” panel on Tuesday, moderated by Athanasios Ellis, Editor in Chief of Kathimerini English Edition.
“The main risk lies with the fact that we have indeed created some expectations…and if we just rest on our laurels, if we are not cautious in rectifying our mistakes and always be careful about the expectations of our visitors,” then the trend might be jeopardized, he said.
Vassilakis said the industry has become more innovative and creative with the debt crisis and after the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the strategic government decision to support tourism helped a lot and created new opportunities.
“We need to acknowledge that Greek tourism is still progressing and still blooming,” he continued, adding that the sector needs support from the state to bring tourists from other countries.
In a country that suffers from demographic trends, “it is up to us to promote policies that underpin local enterprises and reward the dividend of growth, not only to the shareholders but to the people,” adding that training and education are also key.
Kyriakos Magiras, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Attica Group, discussed the country’s infrastructure which, in many cases, needs an urgent upgrade and investment.
“Out of 115 inhabited islands, only 29 have an airport. The remaining islands have a port,” he said when asked about the state of Greek ports.
On the islands, they are 3-star quality at best, when it comes to their port facilities, he added.
“In the port sector, for the past 20-25 years no investments have been made so the opportunity that lies before us is to promote investments in cooperation with the state of course,” Magiras said.
“We, as shipping companies, are jealous of the airline industry and the airport industry because we see that industry is progressing, thus attracting more people.”
On his side, Theodoros Tzouros, Executive General Manager & Chief, Corporate & Investment Banking in Piraeus Bank, said the bank has a 3.2-billion-euro portfolio in the sector of tourism.
The trend in the past years in the Greek hospitality sector is a shift to luxury tourism and an increasing number of branded hotels. “Today, 55% of rooms are 4 stars, in 2019 that percentage amounted to 49%. We do have 41 international brands today in Greece with 37,000 rooms and in 2019 those luxury rooms amounted to 15,000,” he said.
“From the conventional tour operators we now are shifting to brands, with 18% of branded rooms for Hyatt and Hilton and other groups and this is important because they address other non-traditional countries for example the US,” he explained.
The second trend Piraeus Bank has noticed, is the “powerful balance sheets’ of Greek hotels. “As an indication, the overall turnover in 2024 amounted to 10 billion with a profitability of three billion euros… and this has allowed hotels to embark on the path of investments.” These amounted to 3.7 billion euros with 60% to 70% of those investments being made by the big players (4- and 5-star hotels) and this is visible in the industries that are borrowing. From a total of 12 billion euros in borrowing, 60% is 4- and 5-star hotels, with 10,000 total hotels in Greece of which only 2,700 are high-end.
Tzouros said the bank has seen the entry of big private funds from the US, Singapore and Israel investing in this sector and Greek hotel groups are investing again after a tough period.
Asked about Fraport Greece’s interest in investing in more airports, Alexander Zinell, CEO of Fraport Greece, said his company will be expanding its investments to Kalamata in the start of 2026.
“We are looking at other opportunities in Greece but this is a matter of political decision making and I think this will take some time. We talk about 22 more airports in the country that need investment and refurbishment,” he said.
He said the company expects to start operations in Kalamata by the start of February.
Zinell said the airports managed by Fraport have seen a 12 million passenger growth, and the company is focusing its investments to expand capacity for future growth. “We have a program over the next 5 years, roughly 200 million euros in capacity expansion,” with about five million euros annually in upkeep, and this is why at this time of the year Fraport is shutting down some operations in select airports to upgrade the infrastructure, in cooperation with the state.
Yannis Hatzis, President of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Hotel Federation, and First Vice President of the Association of Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), said the sector’s added value comes from the people.
“Our people are the real capital,” he told the panel. “But, frankly, tourism does not have the same prestige compared to 10 years ago. Ten years ago, tourism was part of our success story, everyone would talk about tourism as a way out of the crisis. But today, there are many concerns, staff works mainly out of need and not out of choice and of course, tourism is some kind of an art and we need to cultivate that. We don’t want people just to limit themselves to work a couple months in the summer,” he explained.
Hatzis hailed family run hotels as those that enhance the authenticity of the Greek tourism sector. “But many of those entrepreneurs do not have the time to invest in governance, in correct reporting. As a result, when their relatives are involved it is difficult to manage those hotels. Of course there are success stories” he said, adding that the federation tries to cultivate that mentality.