ATHENS – The president of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), Angela Gerekou, and GNTO Secretary General Dimitris Fragakis referred to the achievements of the Greek tourism industry in 2022, which is expected to emerge as the new benchmark year for Greek tourism, but also to the challenges arising in the new era, during their greeting at the Greek Hospitality Awards 2022.

The awards ceremony was held under the auspices of the GNTO on Friday, October 21 in Athens, with the institution that annually rewards excellence in Greek hotels completing eight years of continuous presence this year.

Gerekou referred to the tourism ministry’s national strategy, under which the GNTO is becoming fully digitalised so as to allow all professionals to have a national portal to communicate and collaborate from every corner of Greece. At the same time, she noted that the new, modern GNTO pavillion at international exhibitions has an “ergonomic innovative design with virtual reality, attempting to introduce the visitor to the Greek climate.”

Fragakis stressed the importance of sustainable tourism and experiential tourism that “will invite visitors to feel like locals for a few days”, asking for the further contribution of hospitality entrepreneurs in the use of local products in hotels. As he said, “we present the Greece we would like to be in the new era, with the development of agritourism and wine tourism, as the coupling of the hospitality economy with Greek products and our culture constitutes the brand of Greece”.

Fragakis, in his greeting, estimated that 2022 will be a benchmark year for Greek tourism. “We will no longer have 2019 as a benchmark year, but 2022,” he underlined.

“Firstly, because we are expected to exceed or get very close to the 2019 revenues from tourism and, secondly, because we managed within 2.5 years, after the absolute zero that tourism reached in 2020, to perform a total reboot.”