Tourism helped to pull Greece through “not just a financial crisis but a social crisis too” said George Tziallas, secretary general for the Ministry of Tourism, Greece, as he outlined plans to encourage further investment and development in the sector across the whole country.
Speaking exclusively to RPA, Tziallas said that with tourism up at 33 million annually and revenues of €16bn representing around a quarter of Greek GDP, the government is focused on extending the holiday season and encouraging development away from traditional destinations, notably Athens.
“Helped by funds from the EU, we have updated the road network to connect the country and we have also introduced flights from many more cities, including New York and the major Chinese cities,” he said. “We have also provided incentives and made legislation simpler to encourage an increase in bed numbers for tourists, with over 50,000 beds added last year, of which 30,000 were four- or five-star.”
While Greece is keen to encourage overseas investment, the government has also been conscious that over 95% of domestic businesses are SMEs and so much of the local efforts have been targeted at helping these companies upgrade and improve their offer.
Acknowledging that bureaucracy remained a challenge, Tziallis said that the government had been working hard to create “an attractive environment for investment from the private sector” and he stressed that one aim is to broaden not only the geographical offer but also to encourage a range of amenities such as luxury resorts, spas, golf courses and wellness centres.
Tziallis said that he expected tourist numbers in Athens to reach six million this year, up from 5.5 million in 2018, meaning that hotel capacity would be running at nearly 100% year-round. As a result, Greece has become the first country to regulate AirBnB nationally in order to ensure that the government receives tax revenue and that the home-sharing service can help ease the capacity burden.
Initiatives are also being carried out to encourage the food supply chain to be localised and to expand organic farming, so that tourists eat locally-produced food at hotels and restaurants.
RPA Perspective Investment confidence is returning to Greece and international investors are active in the market again, as Greece continues to offer high yields, Aris Karytinos, CEO of NBG Pangea, Greece’s largest REIT, told RPA.
NBG Pangea has around €2bn invested across real estate asset classes in Greece, particularly in offices and retail. It also has significant investments in Italy, Cyprus and Sofia, Bulgaria as it positions itself as a regional player in South East Europe.
“We are also aggressively pursuing hospitality assets, student housing and logistics, which is going to be a very important sector for Greece,” said Karytinous, who added that after a very difficult decade “the worst is behind us and we feel far more confident about the future”.
Karytinous said that the industry “had a lot of things to do” as it moved to create a more positive investment climate and that the recent issuing of a 10-year government bond signalled far more confidence in the Greek economy. He said he would like to see more done to counter bureaucracy as the country continues on an upward trajectory.
“Our goal is to continue to diversify and we remain very optimistic that the Greek market will continue to improve and with this attract further inward investment,” he said.
