Tourism will face greater uncertainty due to vaccination delays around the world and the ongoing pandemic, warns Yiannis Retsos, head of the Greek Tourism Association (SETE), in an interview with Kathimerini.

He estimates that this year’s target of reaching 50% of the record 2019 revenues currently appears optimistic – to say the least – and stresses the need to apply aggressive policy tools like temporarily cutting VAT on accommodation and the tourism package to increase competitiveness .

He goes on to argue that tourism will continue to need support in the first half of the year, and calls for the implementation of a major investment program to upgrade obsolete infrastructure in many places, as the post-pandemic day will bring major challenges for the US in an expected sector highly competitive environment.

In the medium term, Retsos expects more market restructuring and new investors as well as the creation of larger groups in the industry. He also identifies traffic as an important link in the industry that will largely determine the course of tourism.