According to the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Greece's hotel room stock grew by 22.6% between 2000 and 2016. The country currently offers 9,730 hotels with a total of 407,146 rooms (788,553 beds). Over the past 16 years, the country's hotel room stock has grown by 22.6 percent. Meanwhile, the ever-increasing The tourist flow is forcing the state to think about new investments in the hotel sector.
In recent years, profitability in the tourism sector has increased significantly, making the sector profitable for investment. According to the long-term forecasts of the World Tourism Council, Greece will need about 5.5 billion by 2023. Euro investments in new hotel capacities and equipment to achieve the projected tourism indicators.
As reported by Hhotel Management CEO of Investments at Enterprise Greece Angela Michalopoulou, Tourism is a key pillar of the Greek economy, and even during the recent crisis, the tourism industry was one of the pillars of the country's economic growth and employment.
The Greek government's priorities to expand the tourist season, attract VIP tourists, increase the average daily expenditure of visitors to the country and open up new tourism markets have created significant opportunities for international investors in many sub-sectors of the Greek tourism market.
Businessmen from exporting countries, including China, Russia, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, Turkey, the USA and Canada, have been investing in Greece more and more over the past seven years.
The speaker specified as an example, what until 2020 into the infrastructure of the country's airports in total will be invested 330 million Euro.
In addition, there is a greater penetration of international hotel brands into various types of tourism products.
“These developments have led to local independent hoteliers stepping up their efforts to enhance their market position by joining industry alliances (e.g. Small Luxury Hotels, Leading Hotels of the World). According to 2015 data, the penetration of new global hotel brands in Greece amounted to 6%. This is significantly higher than the figures for Italy, Austria and Switzerland. But at the same time, there are still unfilled niches for further development so that Greece can approach the level of other European countries - Germany, France and Great Britain," she emphasized. Angela Michalopoulou.
By the way, during 2016, a petition was submitted to the Greek government 142 projects for the construction of new and reconstruction of old four- and five-star hotels with a total capacity of more than 300 beds each. Investors showed particular interest in luxury hotels, primarily in the four- and five-star categories, as well as boutique hotels.
This trend has led to an increase in the share of boutique hotels in the domestic hotel market, and the growth prospects for this segment remain positive due to the development of new properties and the modernization of existing ones.
It is worth noting that over the past year, 5* increased their share of the Greek market to 4.6 percent (versus 1% in 2000), 4* added 50% to the previous level, 3* - plus 37%. Meanwhile, 2* and 1* - reduced their share of the total number of hotel capacities in the country by 18% and 30% respectively (from previous figures).
"This shows that Greece is poised to receive significant investment in the tourism sector in the coming years, and more expensive products will become the benchmark, including marine tourism, both in terms of attracting cruise liners and expanding the yachting offer. Health and recreational tourism, SPA, golf tourism, thalassotherapy centers will also be promoted. Medical tourism is an excellent opportunity for growth. MICE will also be a priority for development,” the expert added.
According to the latest data, in 2016 (for the fourth year in a row), Greece sets records in terms of tourist flow, — the country received almost 25 million guests (an increase of 5 percent compared to the previous year). In addition, the state received 13.22 billion euros from tourism, which is 18.6 percent of the Greek GDP.
"At the same time, the continued growth of tourist flow and industry revenues was mainly due to the efforts of the Greek authorities to update the tourism product. In addition, the development of new key markets had a major impact. Including Israel, India, the Middle East, China and the strengthening of existing ones - Russia and the United States," clarified publication expert.
It is worth noting that the Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum will be held in Tarragona (Spain) on October 16-18, where the prospects for the development of Greek tourism will also be discussed.
Source: trn-news.ru
