Gold Magazine February - March 2013, Issue 23 | Page 67

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GREECE’S TOURISM SECTOR IS READY TO START GROWING AGAIN
By John Vickers

ourism has always been a major source of
income for Greece but over the past few
years it has been seriously affected by competition, image problems and the collapse
of internal tourism due to austerity measures. Efforts are now being made to regain
Greece’s old reputation and lost revenues
and they may be about to bear fruit. Gold
spoke to Yiannis A. Retsos, President of the
Hellenic Hotel Federation and Managing
Director, Electra Hotels & Resorts.

Gold: What is your forecast for the
Greek tourism sector in 2013?
Yiannis A. Restsos: After a very difficult and bumpy 2012, 2013 looks quite
promising. Based on the pre-booking data
currently available, we expect 17 million
tourists this year, which represents an increase of about 6% compared to the 16.1
million arrivals in 2012 and hopefully, close
to €11 billion in direct revenues, which
represents an increase of 10%, compared
to last year’s income of €10 billion. These
figures become more significant if we take
into consideration the fact that we have just

entered the sixth consecutive year of recession, with the total decrease in GDP since
2008 exceeding 25%.
Gold: Has the financial crisis led to an
increase in internal tourism or have
Greeks had to cut down on holiday
expenses?
Y.A.R.: Unfortunately, the second scenario
is our reality. The numbers I described have
to do with the incoming portion of our business, which has proved to be really strong
during the last years of the crisis, mainly
because our product has proved to be really
competitive, offering great value for money.
In contrast, internal tourism has collapsed.
In 2008, it produced close to €3 billion annually. In 2012, this amount was less than
€1.5 billion and it will continue to shrink.
It is not expected to stabilize until we see the
first signs of recovery, one or two years from
now. This huge decline has resulted in reduced activity in small local communities, on
the islands and the mainland, boosting the
recession, along with unemployment figures,
especially in people under 30.

THE INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT, FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MAGAZINE OF CYPRUS

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