The year 2024 will be the year of the complete restoration of global tourism and air transport to pre-pandemic levels, according to the president of the Federation of Greek Travel Agencies, Fedhatta, Lysander Tsilidis.  At the same time, Greece, as the vice president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) Christina Tetradi tells Athens News Agency, is acquiring a stable base of tourist flows at the level of 30 million arrivals, with all that this implies for the planning of businesses and the country's broader tourism strategy.

Greece now has a very competitive tourism product linked to the safety factor, while it can also look to other forms of tourism in order to mitigate seasonality and achieve greater diffusion of tourism income across its regions, Mrs. Tetradi notes. "This year, bookings at the general level may be moving towards a mild increase from 2023, but the time of increased demand is not a time for complacency but a time for strategic planning. 

The thorns of the current year include the two wars in our wider region, according to Tsilidis. As he explains, these events create great concern and fear among travellers but also have a direct impact on energy costs and consequently on the operational scope of the business. For her part, the vice president of HCH and president of hoteliers in Zakynthos focuses on the issue of staffing hotels with personnel, which is a major issue this year. As she says, many hotels will not open their departments for this reason. It is characteristic that the Institute of Tourism Research and Forecasting is preparing a survey for this year which will reflect exactly the labour issue in hotels. This year too, however, operating costs are another hot topic for hotels, which, as Mrs. Tetradi points out, prevents them from making budget forecasts.

Regarding tourist arrivals in Greece and hotel occupancy, Mrs. Tetradi stresses that they are still low since charter flights to Greek destinations have not yet been intensified. At this point, Mrs Tetradi points out that there has been no campaign to link Greek Easter with the start of the summer season in Greece. Similarly, the regions have not shown any communication reflexes, which could well have taken advantage of this time to invite the international travelling public to visit Greece. In any case, hotels are in anticipation, as May is a last-minute month for booking foreign visitors.