ECTAA conference held in Thessaloniki

The key theme of the conference was sustainability in tourism, one of the most important issues affecting the sector in the immediate future, as well as to discuss the labor market challenges in the tourism industry.

In his address to the conference, the Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, via teleconference. A welcome was also addressed by the Deputy Minister of the Interior responsible for Macedonia-Thrace, Stavros Kalafatis. The work of the day was opened by the president of ECTAA, Frank Oostdam, followed by a greeting from the president of FedHATTA, Lysandros Tsilidis. Mr. Tsilidis once again welcomed to our country the European representatives of organized tourism that make up the members of ECTAA and expressed the Federation’s intention that the European body’s events in Greece become an institution, in order to facilitate commercial partnerships for the benefit of tourism.

On the sidelines of the conference, the president of HATTA and president of the Tourism Committee of ECTAA, Nikolas Kelaiditis, held constructive discussions with the European delegates on the perspectives of the European and Greek destination.

The director of GNTO in London, Eleni Skarveli, presented the Sustainable Greece initiative which aims to highlight Greek initiatives for sustainability in the British market, while at the same time they are also presented to British tour operators, who are encouraged to include them in the their travel packages.

The Deputy Minister of Tourism of Cyprus, Savvas Perdios, referred to the initiatives undertaken by the Cypriot government to promote sustainability in the Cypriot tourism product. He referred to private initiatives which have emerged with the aim of taking Cypriot tourism one step closer to slow tourism.

In addition, for the first time at an ECTAA conference, a representative of a trade union (Uni-Europa – European Service Employees Federation) participated, and a representative of the union outlined the main challenges of employment in tourism – working hours, pay and changes to the industry that have expanded the services employees are required to provide.

Dirk Inger of DRV then developed the employment platform Easyboarding, for new entrants to the labor market, workers who want to change careers, active workers in the industry as well as former workers who want to return to the industry.

Finally, the Region of Central Macedonia, the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization and the Thessaloniki Convention Bureau presented the region, promoting the idea of year-round tourism and all the alternative activities that make it possible.

The conference takes place within the framework of the Preferred Destination 2022 program of ECTAA which, in collaboration with GNTO, promotes Greece for one year as a recommended destination in all European tourist markets and brings together the most important representatives of European organized tourism.

The ECTAA conference is organized with the support of GNTO, the Region of Central Macedonia, Aegean Airlines, the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization and the Halkidiki Tourism Organization.