Greek tourism enters a new phase

If there is 1 country successful which Greece has proven its potential, that country is tourism. It has propped up the economy, generated revenue, kept section communities alive, fixed radical opportunities and strengthened the country’s planetary image, with a communicative that is some profound and emotionally resonant.

The information that we are starting from such a precocious point, however, means that the way guardant cannot beryllium a specified repetition of the past. Technology is rewriting the rules of the game. The unit connected fashionable destinations is rising. Social acceptance remains high, but it is not without terms. People are proud, but they are besides fed up with the disruptions, overconcentration, unit connected infrastructure, and shortages of hands and skills.

It is nary longer capable to measurement the country’s success successful numbers, arsenic the situation up is overmuch much complicated: How tin tourism proceed to germinate with much knowledge, greater tolerance and a much meaningful organisation of value? In a balanced way, with much mature destinations, with radical astatine the halfway and a society that feels it benefits alongside it?

People are proud, but they are besides fed up with disruptions, overconcentration, unit connected infrastructure, and shortages of hands and skills

Nothing we person achieved so acold has been a substance of chance. It was built gradually, thanks to planning, investments, partnerships and hard decisions, but besides by navigating crises that tested the assemblage and ultimately made it stronger. Resilience is simply a cardinal portion of our identity. Today, however, we indispensable beryllium something arsenic difficult: that we tin determination into a caller rhythm of maturity, with a clearer absorption and higher value. Maturity does not mean little ambition. It means sharper focus.

This situation is not unique to Greece. Tourism is entering a signifier of transformation globally. Adapting to clime alteration – which is testing the resilience of destinations – a increasing accent connected the prime of the experience, and the use of integer information and artificial intelligence, which are fundamentally reshaping the way we program and take travel, are already determining which destinations will determination up and which will autumn behind.

In an situation such arsenic this, yesterday’s success is nary warrant of tomorrow’s. Complacency whitethorn beryllium to beryllium the astir insidious risk. We cannot enactment connected the presumption that request for Greece is guaranteed and inexhaustible. In tourism, thing that remains stagnant will, sooner oregon later, decline.

When unit mounts and the equilibrium shifts, what you request is simply a constant. And for me, that changeless is respect – not arsenic a nicety, but arsenic a rule that is applied successful practice. Respect for the places that are hosts to tourism, for their infrastructure and for the communities that unrecorded with it. And respect for the radical successful tourism itself – the businesspeople, the workers and each the businesses, large and small, that person been the lifeline of Greek hospitality for decades.

Given these realities, the nationalist treatment astir tourism indispensable beryllium some rigorous and fair. In this context, the treatment connected spatial readying indispensable beryllium substantial, treated arsenic an indispensable information for a tourism exemplary that respects places, radical and their limits. Completing the Special Spatial Framework for Tourism will laic a cornerstone for a assemblage that seeks to turn with rules, balance, and semipermanent prospects. It establishes the model for liable growth, with protections for the earthy and taste environment, and meaningful support for agrarian and land communities. Above all, it provides wide absorption to a assemblage that tin nary longer spend ambiguity. The treatment for such a pivotal contented indispensable beryllium honorable and sincere. Everyone’s voice needs to beryllium heard, without prejudice, and everyone’s objections, too, without causing rifts, but arsenic the indispensable components of a mature nationalist discussion.

Tourism needs rules, readying and self-awareness, which is why the treatment needs to displacement distant from expanding demand, much formation arrivals and greater revenues. These are crucial, but they are not enough. If we want to talk astir high-quality tourism successful earnest, we request to talk astir functional destinations archetypal – astir infrastructure that tin stand up to some clip and pressure; information that enables amended absorption of flows and resources; wide rules governing short-term rentals; carrying capableness arsenic a argumentation tool; astir water, energy, waste management, healthcare and accessibility. In different words, we request to talk astir the mundane prime of beingness of residents and the credibility of the promises we marque to visitors. Quality is not astir aesthetics; it is simply a system. It is processes, consistency and resilience. Ultimately, that is what determines whether a marque represents a genuine acquisition worth returning to.

The aforesaid applies to quality capital. The tourism assemblage has each close to look for talent, but it besides has an work to connection opportunities and semipermanent prospects. High-quality hospitality requires radical with skills and the quality to grow. As much and much services go automated, the quality transportation becomes adjacent much valuable. Greek hospitality is not nostalgia. It is simply a competitory vantage when combined with professionalism, technology and up-to-date skills.

We request young radical for whom tourism is simply a vocation prime and a way of life, not a forced seasonal solution. We request women, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and household businesses. That is the antiauthoritarian quality of tourism. It creates opportunities, spreads income astir and brings antithetic radical together astir a shared spot and communal purpose.

What makes Greece strong is not that it is simply a product. Our strength lies successful the diverseness of our destinations, seasons and landscapes, arsenic well arsenic successful our culture, culinary traditions, nature, architecture, way of beingness and quality interactions. If we compress this diverseness into a constrictive exemplary for wide consumption, we will weaken precisely what makes us competitive.

The Greece marque is the fancy wrapping of marketing. It is simply a solid instauration of trust, and while its representation indispensable surely beryllium grounded successful the country’s beauty, it indispensable besides spell deeper. It should beryllium built connected destinations that relation well and connected experiences that present connected their promise: a Greece that is modern, authentic, high-quality, originative and multidimensional.

In this caller chapter, the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) has a captious relation to play arsenic an organization catalyst and a hub for strategy, cognition and coordinated action, contributing some to however nationalist argumentation is shaped and to a mature, nationalist sermon connected tourism-based connected facts.

The adjacent section of Greek tourism requires planning, practice and consistency. This is the maturity being asked of us: to support our earthy and taste assets, the authenticity of the acquisition and the chiseled quality of our destinations, while astatine the aforesaid clip equipping tourism with the tools it needs to succeed successful the adjacent era, with resilience, balance, prime and greater returns for the communities that sustain it.

The adjacent signifier of Greek tourism will not beryllium determined by whether we proceed to beryllium attractive. It will beryllium determined by whether we person the discipline, determination and courageousness to safeguard our very success earlier it is too late.

Agapi Sbokou is CEO of PHAEA, a starring Greek hospitality company.