Opportunities… under conditions are opening up for Greek tourism due to the more cautious attitude of European travelers, as a result of the uncertainty at the economic and geopolitical level, in relation to their choice of vacations this year.
Although these challenges do not seem to affect their willingness to vacation, which is now considered a basic necessity and not a luxury, they suggest a shift to value for money.
For this reason, “the quality and competitiveness of the tourism product, that is, the quality-price ratio, will determine the success or failure of Greek destinations and businesses”, underlined the President & CEO of ALLSUN HOTELS and Development Consultant of DANAOS TRAVEL, Mr. Michalis Vamiedakis, in an interview he gave to NAFTEMPORIKI TV.
The picture of pre-bookings, travel flows, and scheduled flights is very positive, the results of Greek tourism from the first quarter are encouraging, but consumers do not buy thoughtlessly, but evaluate their choices, he pointed out.
Referring to the German market, he stressed that although there is concern among travelers about developments in the economy and the geopolitical landscape, pre-bookings for Greece are at a higher level than last year. However, he stressed that because there is a sensitivity in the choice of tourist products by consumers, tourism professionals should be careful, as any single-digit decrease from this market will be difficult to cover from others.
Value for money leads to price correction
The trend of careful holiday selection leads to corrections of “overpriced” destinations in the country and to readjustment of businesses to established ones, but it also represents an opportunity to highlight new, more affordable options and destinations.
As Mr. Vamiedakis mentioned, destinations in the country, such as Santorini and Mykonos, have been forced to correct their prices downwards in recent years, which proves that they were “overpriced”.
In areas such as Crete, Rhodes, Kos, and Corfu, there are two-speed hotels, where the competitive ones “fill up” first for the summer, and the rest, due to issues of overpricing or quality, remain with high availability.
At the same time, new destinations that were previously not on the radar of visitors are emerging dynamically and now offer competitive options, such as Evia, the Peloponnese, and some Aegean islands.
Mr. Vamiedakis believes that professionals have realized that travelers are looking for a competitive product, and therefore, they are responding to the market’s need, and are making efforts to improve the product and prices in the right direction”.
The key to new destinations is the increase in beds
However, the main obstacle to new destinations, beyond the efforts to promote them made by the Ministry of Tourism, the Greek National Tourist Organization, and the Regions, remains the reduced availability of beds. “The recipe for their success is to manage to find the golden mean to create quality accommodations, offering sufficient capacity to be approached by tour operators, without distorting the environment,” pointed out the president of ALLSUN HOTELS.
If a few thousand beds are created in the next 5 or 10 years, which will be competitive, high-quality and integrated into the environment, this will be a great success for new destinations such as the Peloponnese, Evia, Parga, Milos and Naxos, he underlined.
At the same time, he highlighted the gradual reversal of the older mentality in Greek tourism for unreasonable price increases in August, which may have been double or triple compared to the rest of the year. In fact, combined with the tendency of travelers to avoid areas with very high temperatures in the summer (colocations), it led to concerns about August.
In this context, he emphasized: “There must be a normalization of prices and a reduction in the contrasts between low, medium and high season prices in all categories of services, while in all tourist activities, climate change should be taken into account as European visitors give it more importance than we do.”
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
