Greek Hotels Chamber: Financial locomotive of tourism needs rails and coal to run on

"It is good to say big words and refer to tourism as the locomotive of the economy, but this should also be translated into actions from the State through the creation of an environment which supports and not undermines the efforts of the hoteliers."

This was stressed by the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Greece, Mr. Alexandros Vassilikos, during his speech at the 7th General Assembly of the Hotel of the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, which took place at the Metropolitan Expo, in the presence of Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, the leadership of important institutional and sectoral bodies as well as more than 950 hotel owners from all over Greece. 

The President of the Hellenic Federation of Tourism noted that according to data, during the crisis the Greek hotel became the main engine of the economy and supported primary production contributing the most in order to meet the challenge of extroversion and the placement of quality local products in major international markets, with initiatives such as the "Greek Breakfast" Program.

Mr. Vassilikos also presented a Five Way Key Roadmap "that can truly" unlock "the developmental dynamics of a Greek hotel."

Starting with overtaxation, the President of the Union of Tourism and Tourism stressed: "The locomotive needs charcoal and rails to speed along. Everyone can imagine how much tourism and the Greek hotel could contribute if we delivered them from the current overtaxation regime, crowned by the residence tax. Regarding the latter, the position of all hoteliers, is clear and specific. It is damaging and must be abolished."

He added that a second key issue that urgently needs to be resolved is the unfair competition by short-term real estate leases.

"Greek tourism requires vision and programming. We are not going to achieve any qualitative goal of upgrading our product by subsidizing basements in Koukaki, and exempting them from residence tax ", Mr. Vassilikos argued.

As the third major problem for the sector, the President of the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board highlighted the issue of infrastructure, and made special mention of the hotel's relations with the banking system.

Finally, Mr. Vassilikos welcomed major foreign investments, but asked the Greek State not to ignore the existing local sector, which is the largest private sector in the country, since it invests significantly each year in upgrading its enterprises and provided services.

In conclusion, the Chairman of the Board of Directors referred to the five main pillars of action by the Hotel Chamber, namely administrative reorganization, strengthening of communication with its members, more efficient use of its institutional role as a consultant for the formulation of the national policy for the sector, to contributing, improving and enriching the Greek hotel product and opening up to society.

Especially for the latter Mr Vassilikos underlined: "Social contibution lies in the DNA of the Greek hotelier. We are proud of what we have done and continue to do. We can do even more and leave a positive social footprint."

Finally, Mr. Vassilikos pointed out that the new administration of the  Hellenic Chamber of Hotels will continue the best practices of the administration's former president Yiorgos Tsakiris who has been named honorary president.

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