Tourism is in need of shifts
Better infrastructures and destination management required, Kathimerini's conference heard
Greece needs to immediately upgrade its infrastructure, as well as the proper management of individual destinations of Greece, the new president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Giannis Paraschis, said during the presentation of Kathimerini’s Reimagine Tourism in Greece initiative on Wednesday.
That need was also made clear by all the presentations and the Deloiite survey done specifically for this purpose during the event in Athens. Paraschis emphasized that “we have built a good brand, but we are at a critical crossroads and we have to define things for the coming years.”
In Greece, 90% of tourism, he explained, is distributed in five regions (Crete, South Aegean, Ionian, Western Macedonia and Attica) and not only in the Cyclades. The challenge is that the 40 million visitors the country expects to welcome by 2030 will be more fairly distributed both geographically and seasonally along with destination management policies by all stakeholders.
Regarding the challenges emerging from the rapid development of tourism in specific destinations and the question of whether we are now faced with excessive tourism, he noted that “on a personal level, I do not like the term hyper-tourism at all. The concept of hypertourism, of large numbers of foreigners spoiling the lives of locals, contains elements of xenophobia. Greece is a place – a melting pot of many cultures, with hospitable people.”
“Problems that may arise sporadically can be addressed with flow management tools more or less similar to those used in airports,” he said. “The protagonists of tourism and those who have the know-how together with the local government can bring things on a measurable basis” he estimated.
While the benefits of sustainability certifications are widely perceived, the majority of tourism businesses that took part in the survey do not have any such eco-badge, while one in two reportedly does not expresses any interest in obtaining environmental certification.
