The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) Secretary General, Dimitris Fragakis, has forecast a 15% increase in tourism-related revenues this year compared to 2022. Speaking at the 8th Delphi Economic Forum 2023, Fragakis attributed this growth to concrete actions taken by Greece to overcome the Covid-19 crisis and emerge stronger and more resilient over the past three years. A key priority for the future, according to Fragakis, is upgrading education in tourism and offering re-skilling options to enable current sector employees to meet the increasing demands of post-Covid travelers. Fragakis highlighted the shortage of staff in tourism, which is affecting the sector. He said that this year, tourism enterprises are short of some 80,000 employees. Among others, Fragakis attributed the problem to the sector’s seasonality as well as to the decision by a large segment of the Greek workforce to seek jobs abroad. To address this issue, the government has granted residence permits to third-country nationals for the 2023-2024 period to meet the demands of the market. At least 10,000 third-country nationals are expected to cover tourism jobs this year. Fragakis stressed that the tourism sector should also be able to meet the demands of younger employees and job seekers.
Fragakis also mentioned the success of the Google tourism training programs for 250,000 employees since 2015 in upgrading education in tourism. However, he called for further re-skilling options to be made available to current employees to enable them to meet the demands of post-Covid travelers. The shortage of staff in tourism is affecting the sector’s ability to meet the demands of post-Covid travelers. This issue has been attributed to the sector’s seasonality as well as to the decision by a large segment of the Greek workforce to seek jobs abroad.
The Greek government has taken action to address the shortage of staff by granting residence permits to third-country nationals for the 2023-2024 period. At least 10,000 third-country nationals are expected to cover tourism jobs this year. However, Fragakis stressed that the tourism sector should also be able to meet the demands of younger employees and job seekers.
In conclusion, Fragakis predicts a 15% increase in tourism-related revenues this year over 2022. Despite this growth, the sector is experiencing a shortage of staff, which is attributed to the sector’s seasonality as well as to the decision by a large segment of the Greek workforce to seek jobs abroad. The government has taken action to address the issue by granting residence permits to third-country nationals. However, the tourism sector should also be able to meet the demands of younger employees and job seekers. Fragakis emphasized the need for further education and re-skilling options to enable current sector employees to meet the increasing demands of post-Covid travelers.
