HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN GREECE 2020
What is the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market?
Due to the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2020 the seaside hotels in Greece were officially closed by the Greek government until the mid of June. What happens right now in the Greek hospitality industry and what is the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market? Here is a short update from our partner hotels' experience.
Unfortunately, not all of the hotels in Greece are opening this year. Most of the hotels which had mainly non-EU tourists (Russia, Ukraine, FYROM, etc) are still closed due to the closed borders to such tourists. Some other hotels will open later in July due to very low bookings. Some others are still not sure if will finally open this year or not. There are hotels that despite all difficulties have managed to open but are not sure if this would last until the end of the season because... the tourists are less than the staff members! Big hotel chains with more than one hotel in most of the cases are not opening all of their hotels. In this case, they can concentrate all bookings in one of their hotels (or a few of many) to keep it more or less fully booked. In such a case they can also concentrate their summer staff from all their hotels in just one or a few hotels.
What does it all mean for the international staff (people coming from abroad for summer job in greek hotels)? Fewer vacancies, fewer opportunities. Once the positions are much less than in the previous years there is enough local staff to cover them. Moreover, some hotels avoid international staff to minimize the risk of COVID-19 cases in their place.
If you are among the applicants who did not get any offer yet or were not reconfirmed by the hotel which accepted you before the lockdown you might get the offer later in July-August in case the things go better with COVID-19 and bookings. Otherwise, you are more than welcomed to apply for the next tourism season starting in April-May 2021. The only thing you have to do is to change the availability dates in your jobtrust application form.
Jobtrust is truly thankful to all the participants for their patience and understanding and wishes you all health, courage and optimism despite the current situation.