Hellenic Chamber of Hotels Takes Greek Hospitality Priorities

EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas (center) alongside the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) delegation in Brussels. From left: HCH Director General Agni Christidou, Vice President Emmanouil Manousos, Executive Committee member Apostolos Mousamas, President Alexandros Vassilikos and Vice President Grigoris Tasios.

The Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) has carried the priorities and ongoing initiatives of the Greek hospitality sector all the way to Brussels, injecting Greece's experience into the discussions that will shape the European Union's first comprehensive strategy for sustainable tourism.

A Meeting Timed for the Strategy's Final Stretch

Chamber President Alexandros Vassilikos, together with members of the HCH Executive Committee, sat down with EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas at a pivotal stage, just as work on the strategy is entering its final phase. That timing matters: with the framework now taking its definitive shape, the window for sector input is at its narrowest — and the Greek delegation made sure its experience was part of the record.

The Challenges Shaping European Hospitality

The conversations revolved around the core challenges weighing on European hospitality, which the two sides took up one by one:

• Competitiveness and sustainability — growing the sector without sacrificing the environmental standards that underpin it.
• Resilience to crises — staying standing when emergencies strike, and recovering quickly.
• The twin green and digital transitions — managing both transformations at once across the industry.
• The needs of small and medium-sized businesses — the backbone of European hospitality, with specific constraints of its own.
• Workforce issues — attracting and retaining the people the sector depends on.
• Local community benefit — making sure tourism development translates into tangible gains for the destinations that host it.

Striking that balance matters, because growth should reinforce — not erode — the people and places, from lively neighborhoods to Greece's enchanting hidden beaches, that make a destination worth returning to.

Greece's Opportunity — and Its Responsibility

For Vassilikos, the stakes are clear. Europe, he pointed out, is assembling a comprehensive sustainable tourism strategy for the very first time — a fact that hands Greece both a significant opportunity and a weighty responsibility. The country, in his view, arrives well prepared, bringing the knowledge, the accumulated experience and the practical initiatives required to contribute meaningfully to the strategy's development.

It is an expertise travelers can sense for themselves, from the attentiveness of island service to the authentic flavors running through Greek cuisine.

EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas (left) with HCH President and HOTREC President Alexandros Vassilikos at their Brussels meeting on the future of European tourism and hospitality.

Five Greek Initiatives on the Table

Over the course of the meeting, the HCH delegation walked Commissioner Tzitzikostas through five initiatives, each responding to an area the chamber considers decisive for the future of European hospitality:

• CapsuleT Travel & Hospitality Accelerator — a program built to connect startups and the broader Greek innovation ecosystem with the practical needs of hospitality businesses, giving emerging ideas a direct route into the day-to-day running of hotels.
• "Learning Hospitality" educational program — an initiative designed to introduce younger generations to hospitality and to the career paths the sector can open up, with activities aimed specifically at primary and secondary school students.
• Digital emergency-management platform — a tool that draws on real-time information about hotel capacity to support both residents and visitors whenever natural disasters or other emergencies unfold.
• Hotel sustainability classification initiative — presented by HCH as the first scheme of its kind anywhere in the world, it builds measurable environmental and social criteria into the way hotels are classified and evaluated.
• HOTELS FOR — a non-profit organization through which the Greek hotel sector structures its social contribution and tightens its bonds with local communities.

Taken together, these five initiatives allowed the delegation to put forward the Greek hotel sector's track record — practical, tested measures rather than lofty intentions — as an active input into the discussions now defining the EU's first comprehensive tourism strategy.

One Voice on Two Levels: Athens and Europe

Vassilikos, who additionally serves as president of the European hospitality association HOTREC, underlined that the chamber feeds into the European debate through two channels at once: its institutional role within Greece and its engagement at European level.

"The future of European hospitality will be determined by our ability to create value for everyone — businesses, employees, visitors and local communities," he said. For guests, that value shows itself in tangible ways, from a smooth welcome to an unhurried swim off Greece's lesser-known shores.

A First for Tourism at Commission Level

Vassilikos also pointed to the significance of Tzitzikostas' position: the Commissioner is the first at European level whose portfolio explicitly includes tourism, a fact the HCH president said gives the chamber genuine optimism about the upcoming strategy. In the chamber's assessment, the new framework could lay stronger foundations for a hospitality sector that is at once more sustainable and more competitive — in Greece and across the whole of Europe.

Key Takeaways

• The EU's first comprehensive sustainable tourism strategy is in its final phase, and the HCH moved to secure Greek input at exactly that moment.
• Discussions spanned six core challenges, from crisis resilience and the green–digital transitions to SME needs and workforce pressures.
• Greece arrived with evidence, not promises: five working initiatives covering innovation, education, emergency response, sustainability classification and social contribution.
• Vassilikos' dual role — leading both the HCH and HOTREC — gives the Greek sector a direct line into the European debate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who took part in the Brussels meeting? HCH President Alexandros Vassilikos led the delegation, joined by Director General Agni Christidou, Vice Presidents Emmanouil Manousos and Grigoris Tasios, and Executive Committee member Apostolos Mousamas. They met EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

Why is this meeting significant? The EU is shaping its first comprehensive strategy for sustainable tourism while the work is in its final phase, and Tzitzikostas is the first European Commissioner whose portfolio explicitly includes tourism — a combination the HCH reads as a positive signal.

What did the chamber present? Five initiatives: the CapsuleT Travel & Hospitality Accelerator, the "Learning Hospitality" educational program for primary and secondary school students, a digital emergency-management platform using real-time hotel-capacity data, a globally first-of-its-kind hotel sustainability classification with measurable environmental and social criteria, and the non-profit HOTELS FOR.

What outcome does the chamber expect? Per Vassilikos, the strategy could lay stronger foundations for a more sustainable and more competitive hospitality sector — in Greece and across Europe.