Hotels in Greece Sign Deal to Promote Branded Greek Wines

Photo source: Achaia Clauss Winery

Greece’s hoteliers have joined forces with local wine producers to promote branded Greek wines as part of efforts to upgrade the wine tourism experience.

Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) President Alexandros Vassilikos and Wines of Greece President Costas Efstathiou signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) for the promotion of branded Greek wines during this week’s “Wine Tourism: The Next Day” workshop held at Greece’s oldest winery, Achaia Clauss, in Patra.

The agreement foresees:

– information and awareness raising activities,
– defining requirements for certification,
– annual wine presentations to HCH member hotels,
– training seminars for tasting and wine presentation for hotel staff,
– ‘twinning’ between wineries and hotels,
– incentives to hoteliers to include locally produced branded wines on their wine lists,
– joint actions and initiatives with the local authorities, organizations and the Greek National Tourism Organization, for the inclusion of wine tourism in the tourism ministry’s national strategy.

The two sides also agreed to set up a permanent working group which will monitor and contribute to the implementation of the MoC’s objectives.

“We are here today to embrace Greece’s famous wines and join forces in order to enrich the hospitality experience with its uniqueness and at the same time create new ways of extroversion for Greece’s winemakers  winery,” said Vassilikos.

“The Greek hotel continues to be the main driver of local development and distributing the dividends of success to the primary sector,” he added.

Indicatively, according to an Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP) study, 97 percent of the wines consumed by at hotels are Greek.