Climate change, education, tax and other burdens, digital transformation and effective spatial planning are the five major challenges that tourism must respond to, both immediately and in the medium to long term. This is highlighted, among other things, in the annual report of the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE) published on Monday.
Climate change and mainly the way it affects Greece, namely with excessive heat and extreme weather phenomena such as storms Ianos and Daniel, etc, affects both demand with a gradual reduction in the intensity of seasonality from the third quarter to the rest of the year, and supply, underlining the need for investments – mainly public, but also private – in more resilient infrastructure, and in investments such as insulation, as well as to cover increased energy requirements. The issue of environmental certification of hotels is also relevant, where Greece has a lower percentage of certified hotels compared to its competitors.
The need for timely and effective adaptation of education and training to modern trends with an emphasis on skills development is of major importance, as the main competitive advantage of Greek tourism is its employees who, in addition to a high level of service, also offer the feeling of Greek hospitality. The high value-added tax and the irrational Climate Change Fee significantly burden the price and therefore the competitiveness of the Greek hotel product, especially those units that have a small competitive advantage; they also pressure operational profitability and prevent the spatial and temporal expansion of the activity and the emergence of new destinations.
In addition, the majority of businesses in the tourism sector, mainly small and medium-sized, which make up a significant part of the identity and, by extension, the differentiation of the Greek tourism product, have very limited access to bank loans.
Digital transformation, enrichment of the tourism product, and above all clear, flexible and effective spatial planning that will serve the dual objective of a safe development environment within a framework of sustainability are also among the key challenges facing the sector, with the necessary implementation of a sustainable development strategy per destination, INSETE says.