Tourism Investment Opportunities in Greece
The Greek Tourism Sector is one of the most active sectors of the Greek economy, offering opportunities for investments.
VK PREMIUM can provide valuable assistance in the areas of market and sector analysis, opportunity assessment, due diligence, feasibility studies, project valuation, etc.
Short presentation of the active projects and investment opportunities in Greece about the Tourism sector.
Investing in the Greek Tourism Sector
Greece is one of the top global tourist destinations for sun and beach holidays, and also provides attractive propositions for year-round themed holidays. The competitive advantages of Greece, such as rich cultural heritage, natural beauty and geographical variety, have been attracting significant tourism investments in recent years, thus further strengthening Greece’s image as an ideal destination both for holidays and tourism-related investments.
Even during the recent crisis, the tourist industry in Greece has been one of the mainstays of economic growth and employment, with a continued growth in tourist arrivals and revenues driven mainly by:
• the determined efforts of the Greek tourist authorities and associations to upgrade the tourist product offering
• the development of new key markets such as Russia, Israel, Turkey and China.
The tourist industry is currently undergoing a major strategic improvement initiative, focusing on the expansion of the tourist period, the attraction of higher-value tourist segments (High-net-worth, affluent), the increase of average daily spending and the opening of new tourist markets.
Greece is poised to make significant investments in the tourist industry, focused on transforming the traditional “sun & beach” tourist product into a number of higher-value, more focused products, centered around:
1.Thematic sun & beach tourism, where specific “themes” such as wellness, romance or luxury are used to add value and to extend the typical sun & beach holidays
2.Nautical tourism, both in terms of attracting a larger amount of cruise liners and in terms of extending the offering for yachting/ sailing holidays
3.City Break tourism focused mainly around the two main cities of Athens and Thessaloniki
4.Cultural and religious tourism, upgrading and leveraging the several historical, heritage and religious monuments and museums of Greece
5.Medical tourism which presents an exciting growth opportunity if the skilled Greek medical personnel is combined with investments in existing facilities and infrastructure,
6.Meetings and Incentives (MICE) tourism positioning Greece as a major meeting and conference center for regional associations and companies
7.Integrated resorts – holiday housing new developments in existing and new tourism destinations taking advantage of the new legislation for the development of integrated resorts and for the acquisition of residence permits by non EU citizens who invest in Real estate
Key Figures
Total tourism Added Value | €28 bn1 |
Tourism as % of Greek GVA | 16%2 |
International arrivals in 2014 | ~22 mn3 |
Total people employed in tourism | 657,0004 |
Number of beaches and marinas with blue flags | 393 beaches and 9 marinas |
Number of operating marinas | 195 |
Number of docking berths | 6,6616 |
Number of UNESCO recognized World Heritage sites | 177 |