“We have the longest coastline in the country. We are served by three airports (Athens, Kalamata, Araxos) that are a maximum of 3 hours away from the area. We have a modern road network, a Monument Bridge and a state-of-the-art port. We have the richest plain with lots of good rainfall. We have a fairly high potential workforce for the hospitality industry. We have a unique archaeological wealth. How is it possible to have all of the above and at the same time be last in tourism? It’s not possible, we’re doing something wrong.”
The resounding reflection belongs to a connoisseur of the tourist market and the field of hospitality, the managing director of the Aldemar Resorts group, Alexandros Angelopoulos and was submitted at the first major conference on Tourism in Western Greece, entitled Travel West Forum, organized on Friday 19 April from TheBest.gr.
Explaining the very low income from tourism in Western Greece, Mr. Angelopoulos attributed it to the very small number of hotels, especially those that are 5 and 4 stars. Specifically, out of a total of 272 accommodation units, only 7 five-star and 48 four-star hotels exist in the area, with 80% of the hotel potential being of a lower category and therefore cheaper.
Mr. Angelopoulos presented revealing data on the overall picture of Greek tourism. As he said, from 2019 to 2023, a period in which the hospitality industry was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, there have been huge changes that have not so much to do with the number of tourists, but with the length of stay and tourist expenditure.
He specifically stated that arrivals in 2019 were 31.3 million and in 2023 they increased to 32.7 million people. At the same time, in 2019 the average length of stay of foreign tourists in Greece was 7.4 days. During the coronavirus period the stay increased to 8.9 days, but in 2023 it fell even lower to 7 days.
Comparing these two figures, Mr. Angelopoulos emphasized that overnight stays are not at all increased. Specifically, he said that in 2019 it was 232.4 million and in 2023 it fell to 227.9 million. But this is of more interest to us than the number of visitors,” the well-known manager emphasized and added that “in Greece there is a falsehood by convention, when we only refer to the number of visitors. We don’t care how many came, but how long they stayed. Because the expenditure, the money spent in the country, is about the stay of the visitors in the country. It’s all about the airlines.”
Another element that does not predispose to celebrations concerns the average expenditure of the foreign tourist which has fallen today to 605 euros, from 890 euros in 2008. And the average daily expenditure of 87 euros is below the European average, added Mr. Angelopoulos.
The second bell rang by the Aldemar Resorts manager concerns the importance that each government gives to the tourism sector. He stated that tourism contributes to almost 40% of the GDP, however the role of the relevant ministry is degraded, in the last position of the Council of Ministers, in contrast to other competing countries. “Unfortunately, the role of hospitality as an ecosystem that sustains the entire economy is not recognized,” said Mr. Angelopoulos.
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