Valentini Amarantidou | DHR Services

The MICE Industry – Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events – is a well respected segment within the total tourism of any country. Great Investments have been made over the past thirty years at national, regional or city levels global-wide, to attract MICE business into one’s destination. Investment in infrastructure, such as convention centers, convention hotels, event and exhibition halls as well as airports and transportation hubs of large scale have been constructed in many cities.

Dedicated Marketing Teams have been created and financed to run promotion strategies globally to attract international conferences, meetings and events in any destination.

The industry of the Convention Bureaus over these last couple of decades has grown considerably; Convention Bureaus are service points of a destination facilitating incoming interest for MICE; they also dynamically bid abroad to welcome such business.

The MICE industry has been literally paused for 12 months now due to the pandemic.

Expectations see a total of 20 month inactivity in physical meetings. Within this frame and with no money flow, investment can only be expected from the public sector.

Greece badly needs convention centers of international standards. Without this infrastructure we are limiting our potential to bid for large scale pieces of business.

Meetings will not stop. Their format may change and the return to “normality” will take some time; we estimate this time to be the year 2024. We expect a V shape demand for meetings in the next couple of years. Greece is a popular destination and a good marketing strategy of the past years has helped as stay at the forefront of preferred destinations.

Investment is expected to grow in the two largest cities, namely Athens and Thessaloniki. The largest islands of the country, such as Crete & Rhodes may enjoy attention as they combine a number of advantages for an international organiser.

The future landscape of the MICE industry demands technology advanced structures and modern ergonomic architecture that is well adapted to the natural environment of the country. We look forward and prepare for the future with a positive mindset and a great belief in the power of the MICE industry.

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CEO

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.

Vice President

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).