A retroactive projection of the last twenty years regarding the mainstream economic, political and overall analysis, will reveal that the events that actually took place were hardly possible to be predicted. Starting from the economic meltdown of 2008 and coming to the current pandemic, world has become very unstable, with break-neck events that change all the rules of the game. Greece enters in this new turbulent economic environment after a ten years’ period of austerity and economic crisis. During pandemic, the country faces an almost total collapse of its heavy industry, tourism.
However, the lessons we learned as an industry and as a country through all these challenges and difficulties made us wiser and gave us the opportunity and the incentive to go through a process of changes that will “immune” our economic system and strengthen us as a society even more.
The economic success starts, as always, from the liberalization of the most critical segments of each economy, that can add up value to the overall related process. The privatization and the modernization of the most important airports of Greece and especially those in the touristic areas consists one of the most critical criteria of investment security for the touristic sector.
Greece has suffered for decades from poor or inappropriate airport infrastructures. The importance of modern airports not only constitutes a crucial link of the touristic chain of value, but also the “frontpage” of our country for all visitors that choose Greece as their touristic destination. Better airport infrastructures mean more tourists, better services, and a better experience for all the people that visit Greece.
But Greece has also the opportunity to be transformed to an important, modern, commercial gate of Southeast Europe through the ongoing process of privatization of state-owned ports.
This concession procedure will transform our Country to a modern hub for transportation of goods and tourism and will attract even more investments and capital from all over the world. Greece is lagging behind other developed E.U. countries to a critical economic sector, logistics, that has the potential to match in GDP terms industrial production. Even more for Greece that lies to a strategic crossroad of three continents the exploitation of such an opportunity is one way road that cannot and should not be missed.
Greece has a huge opportunity the next ten years to become an all-different country. It is in our hands to understand the challenges ahead and work consistently and tirelessly to make our country a modern state and a modern competitive economy.
Send download link to:
Konstantinos Alexopoulos has been a professional in the Greek hospitality industry for two decades with extensive experience in hotel
management, operation and consulting. He is the CEO of Domotel Hotels & Resorts Group, which has a history of more than 15 years in its current form and a heritage in the hospitality sector which began in 1964. Additionally, he holds the position of CEO at DHR Services,
supporting hospitality brands through his extensive know-how in the industry; both positions are reinforced by his ten years of experience in the construction sector in Greece and the Balkans, which furthered his knowledge of local markets. Having completed his Degree as a Civil Engineer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he continued with a Master in Science in “Construction Economics and Management” in UCL and a Master of Arts in Hospitality Management in Middlesex University. Furthermore, he has attended two complementary training programs in finance and management at the University of Macedonia. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greek Tourism Enterprises Confederation (SETE) and the treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Institute of SETE, a member of the Leadership Committee of the Hellenic – American Chamber of Commerce and holds positions in a number of Boards of Directors of other organizations.
After completing her Bachelor in Business Administration (Minor in Science and Economy) at the American College of Thessaloniki, she continued with an MBA in Hospitality Marketing at Les Roches School of Hotel Management in Switzerland and a Diploma of Higher Education in International Tourism “The French approach” from the Universite Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne. She has been running the family owned hotel for almost twenty years, initially as an Operations Manager and later on as General Manager and CEO. She has been a member of the Board of Directors in Thessaloniki’s Hotels Association and has participated as a guest speaker in several lectures and seminars such as Yield Managementin Les Roches (Bluche, Switzerland), and Operations Management Principles and Housekeeping Principles in CMH (Paris, France).