Op-Ed: ‘Tourism will Rebound!’ – Alexandros Vassilikos

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) has provided a podium for Greece’s key tourism figures to share their vision for the day after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“How will humanity react to more than a “year off” as a whole?

Will humanity show its inspiring historical ability to question its own values and transform itself or will it rather underline its disappointing habit to forget and stay in its comfort zone?

Will we see the return to a healthier rural life and therefore urban exodus?

A brake in the consumption chains as we know them?

There is obviously no black or white answer to these questions.

The answers will reflect many shades of grey depending on geography, level of education, social background and level of income. But you can easily attempt to answer these questions by taking a look around you. How many people have taken life altering decisions compared to
how many just await to “come back to normality”? I am certain you will find a disturbing majority…

The strategic decisions that need to be taken for tourism in the post-Covid era do not differ from the pre-Covid ones. They are accelerated and enhanced by tools like the recovery plan in fields like sustainability.

Tourism answers a fundamental human need rather than creates a consumer need. The need to socialize, to explore other civilizations through culture or taste, the need to open up and discover, known from ancient times. Therefore it will rebound!

I believe that our biggest challenge is that our decisions from now on will need to be strategically flexible in order to permit constant adaptation to the speed of change in business models.

This is a huge difference compared to the decisions that used to be taken up until now and followed for years or more often for decades. Such business models are obsolete and will be disrupted constantly in a world where disruption is the new evolution.”

* This Op-Ed originally appeared in the Greek Travel Pages (GTP) annual printed edition for 2021. Press here for more information.