Tourism: Realism and initiatives are our weapons for another difficult summer

“How will tourism fare this summer?” This is the most common but also reasonable question posed by most people directly or indirectly related to Greek tourism. That’s why lately I often use as an answer, a conversation I had a few weeks ago with an American friend, economist, and expert on world markets. When I asked him his estimates for 2021, for the evolution of the economy, but especially for how tourism will move this year, he answered me disarmingly with a saying of the great physicist Stephen Hawking “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge “.

In a few but wise words, he reminded me, in his own joking way, of the great lesson of this unprecedented crisis. Certainty, over-optimism, or even absolute pessimism in an unprecedented global situation, with data changing day by day, are no good when you are responsible for planning, strategic moves, actions for the present and the future. Our conversation took place in early March, and now, we are already in mid-April, with the “oracle” of my good friend being fully verified.

In yesterday’s telephone conversation on the latest developments, he repeated exactly the same words to me, although America, where he lives and works, has already managed to carry out an ambitious vaccination program and is finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, into which  the pandemic led the planet. But the above related story, in no way means fatalism. In fact, the opposite. Last year’s experience teaches in the most emphatic way, that we should be realistic, calm and plan our next moves step by step. So for 2021 the big issue is to proceed in the next period to the resumption of tourism with safe and applicable rules. The crisis is dynamic, multifactorial, and the data change literally with every passing hour The pandemic is present and completely defines developments.

Based on the latest data, achieving 50% of revenue in 2019, which we estimated a few months ago, is rather a very ambitious goal. Our expectations and of course our plans for the revenues of 2021 should move to lower levels and it is self-evident that they will be shaped depending on the course of the pandemic and vaccinations throughout the planet. We will have a clearer picture at the end of July. And there we will be able to speak with confidence and accuracy, as we did last year, about developments in 2021. All the above lead to the conclusion that this year will be a year of intense uncertainty, low expectations and high demands.

We must not forget that in addition to the pandemic, there is an ongoing economic crisis. In most of our markets there was a decrease in GDP in 2020, ranging between -5% and -10%. This reduction is not evenly distributed and therefore in many households the impact of the financial crisis is very large. Thus, we all understand that this condition will further limit the ability of many people to travel. Because even those who were not directly affected financially, will logically be more cautious about their expenses, due to the prevailing great insecurity.

The concern of people regarding the health issue still exists and directly defines the way one chooses how, where, and when to move. People are much more wary of international travel, preferring to stay within their  own country, the so-caqlled staycation continues, people want few trips and a lot of security. Habits change radically and this requires us to adapt to them immediately. And what does all this mean in practice? That we have before us another difficult and demanding summer for which we are already preparing accordingly. We need realism, initiatives, mobility.

Realism in the goals we set, initiatives to provide the necessary tools to support the industry, mobility to form a complex network of actions to open up our key markets, but also the implementation of bilateral agreements to enrich the countries of origin of visitors.

It is a given that in order for tourism to stand on its feet competitively, the necessary tools to support it must be provided. Only in this way, Greek tourism, even under these unprecedented – in intensity and duration – conditions, will be able to unleash all its forces for the social and economic development of the country. But one thing is for sure and should be understood by everyone. The support that tourism receives in this difficult situation, will return to the national economy, to Greek society in the end, many times over. The return can be impressive. With balanced growth, and liquidity in the economy, jobs, and social cohesion. Greek tourism, aspires in this crisis, to be the big protagonist of the day after.

We have already taken steady steps to rise once again. We are moving forward without illusions, for another difficult year that will be the beginning of a great recovery. In closing, I wish you a good start in the new venture of the historic OT and hard work, through the prestige of the name and the value of its staff, to serve the need for coveted knowledge.

Article by Giannis Retsos, president of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE)