Initiatives of Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) and the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCL) is expected in the next period with the aim of defining a framework for the “sustainable development” of tourism in Greece. SETE has already announced a pilot initiative in this direction, METRON Sustainable Tourism by SETE, while the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels is also preparing an initiative for sustainable development with a horizontal character. The two agencies are expected to work together in this direction, together with the Ministry of Tourism, as the president of SETE said Giannis Paraschis.
The question is which initiatives will include sustainability in its development strategy tourism sector to concern all businesses and “leave no one behind”.
Hotels and sustainable development
Of great concern are the thousands of small and medium-sized tourism businesses in Greece that often lack the financial ability to pursue sustainable growth. The lack of sustainability, SETE reports, is particularly pronounced in small and medium-sized businesses with revenues of less than 10 million euros, which make up the majority of the sector.
XEE opened a “dialogue” throughout the hotel industry on sustainability issues through and from special surveys by the Institute of Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP) found that 78% of all hotels have or intend to adopt sustainable practices.
However, there are also 22% of hotel businesses that do not have or have no intention of implementing sustainable practices and the main reason (69.5%) is lack of funding.
According to the ITEP survey, the main reason for preventing investment in sustainability for 60% of hoteliers is the high cost of investment. Only 6% of hotels have taken advantage of financial programs related to sustainability in the past. Hoteliers can be prepared with proper financing programs for sustainability.
However, according to the same launched ITEP survey, the majority of respondents (87%) consider that the adoption of sustainable practices (sustainability practices) is important for the future of their hotel business.
In any case, as emphasized at the recent general assembly of SETE by the president of SETE, Yiannis Paraschis, “the formation of a sustainable and environmentally responsible tourist business is the only way if we want Greece’s tourism will continue on its positive course and the Greece brand will remain at the top”.
In this context, SETE announced an important initiative for the transition of tourism businesses to sustainability.
He named it METRON Sustainable Tourism through SETE: “Because METRON means measurement, proportion and also a rule. Because sustainability without measurement, without rules, cannot exist.”
As described by Mr. Paraschis, the initiative is related to an integrated program of self-evaluation, control, training, compliance, self-commitment and targeting, re-examination, and certification of businesses.
The initiative will start in the second half of 2024 with the pilot application of selected companies before the rollout of the program based on an electronic platform and aim – initially – to measure five important indicators: Energy Consumption, Water Consumption, Production and Waste Management, Labor Issues, Social Footprint in the sectors: Hotel Businesses, Air Transports, Sea Transports, Land Transports, Tourist Offices And of course, as pointed out by Mr. for the benefit of tourism businesses”.