The new duties of V. Kikilias in the Ministry of Tourism and the need for an “iron” stomach

Ensuring the survival of small and medium-sized hotel companies, mainly those that operate all year round, and have borne heavy burdens in the last two years, due to the pandemic, the emphasis on quality tourism, through the further promotion of the brand “Greece”, the extension of tourist season and the improvement of infrastructure in order to “withstand” the pressure of the coming years from the expected new record of arrivals of foreign tourists are the “labors” the new Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias will have to face.

The appointment of Kikilias to the Ministry of Tourism was one of the scenarios that circulated among the tourism players and was finally confirmed at 11 on Tuesday morning when the changes in the government were announced. The new Minister himself viewed his appointment to his new post positively.

The outgoing Minister Haris Theocharis, who is said to be out of the government due to a “collision”, managed from the beginning of 2020, an unprecedented tourist crisis, as a result of an epidemiological crisis that has not been faced by the planet and which surprised everyone. This year, however, there is a general feeling among the players in the tourism sector, that the political leadership of the Ministry of Tourism has met the requirements of the situation and as it is typically said by some, a part of the tourists who visited our country this year, a year of recovery of the Greek market, it was the Minister of Tourism that “brought” them to Greece and in particular the transnational agreements signed at the end of last year and the beginning of this year.

Today and given that we are close to achieving the goal of tourism revenue at 50% of revenues in 2019 (approximately 9 billion euros) the swearing in of a new Minister is offered for a description of the strategic needs of Greek tourism

And these, according to the report of ot.gr, include:

-the successful management of the last phase of the crisis, which mainly concerns the support of all hotel units and especially those of continuous operation but also of employees in the industry, the number of which seems to be insufficient as shown by this year’s experience.

-the focus and obsession with policies that will strengthen the trend of rising average spending per trip and attracting even more tourists with “fatter wallets”

-the extension of the tourist season, something that seems possible with the appropriate conditions and finally

-the improvement of the infrastructure mainly in popular destinations, which are presumably islands and in fact smaller islands such as Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes etc. and therefore need special studies and measures for infrastructure, which will be rather “expensive” since they will be utilized for a relatively short period of the year.

Finally, given that the Ministry of Tourism will have to cooperate with many other ministries and tourism policy is “inter-ministerial”, the Minister of Tourism needs to have patience, perseverance and an “iron” stomach in order to “convince” his colleagues of the need for various measures. ….