Sun, Jun 22, 2025 page9

• Staff shortages hit Greek hotels as locals quit their jobs

  • By Vassilis Kyriakoulis / AFP, HALKIDIKI PENINSULA, Greece
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  Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire.

  Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.”

  Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them.

  

  People enjoy the beach at a resort on Greece’s Halkidiki Peninsula, on June 13.

  Photo: AFP

  “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would not give her surname for fear of putting off future employers.

  “We were housed in a space with eight other people, without air conditioning or laundry facilities,” she added.

  Despite a record year last year with 36 million visitors — and equally robust forecasts for this season — operators say they are short of thousands of staff.

  

  A waiter serves drinks to customers on the Halkidiki Peninsula, Greece, on June 13.

  Photo: AFP

  Studies show one in five jobs are perennially unfilled, with similar forecasts for this year.

  Markos Kesidis, who runs a beach bar and a small hotel in Halkidiki, said he has to wait on his customers himself.

  “I need 20 people for the beach bar. Right now, it’s impossible to find that many,” he said.

  Tourism brought in 30.2 billion euros (US$34.8 billion) last year to Greece, about 13 percent of the country’s GDP, the Greek Tourism Confederation said.

  However, the sector was short of 54,000 workers, the Research Institute for Tourism (ITEP) said.

  ITEP chairwoman Konstantina Svynou said that the situation is unlikely to change.

  “For this reason, many hotel owners turn to seeking temporary staff from third countries,” meaning from outside the EU, Svynou said.

  About half of Greek hoteliers intended to hire from countries outside the bloc to fill more than 28,000 jobs, an ITEP research indicated, she said.

  Most tended to be for unskilled positions such as housekeeping, dishwashing and cleaning.

  Hotel staff in Greece earn on average between 950 and 1,000 euros a month, plus bonuses.

  In Halkidiki, local hotel associations have attempted to hire workers from nearby refugee centers, but the uptake has not been high.

  “A total of 110 individuals initially expressed interest, but only 10 are currently working in the area’s hotels,” Halkidiki Hoteliers Association president Grigoris Tasios said.

  “Most are afraid that when the tourist season ends, they might no longer find accommodation in the reception centers” as asylum arrivals tend to go up in the summer, he said.

  Tasios said one in 10 posts are vacant in hotels in the northern Greek peninsula, famous for its sandy beaches.

  Its 540 hotels nominally employ 14,000 people.

  “Several have hired workers from India and the Philippines” to get by, he said.

  The majority of staff on some of the heavily-touristed Greek islands tend to come from outside the EU.

  “Only 14 of the 70 staff at the hotel where I work are Greek,” said Maria Angeli, 54, a linen keeper in a luxury hotel on the island of Santorini.

  “My other colleagues are from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and African nations,” Angeli said. “Greeks, particularly young people, are now more reluctant to work in tourism businesses. Often the working and living conditions are not good, and this is a deterrent.”

  Catering is also beleaguered by staff shortages, although the exact statistics are unknown.

  However, restaurants and other catering businesses on some islands are closing for a day a week, because they cannot get enough help.

  “Finding staff is challenging anyway, but labor law restrictions make it even harder for our businesses to operate and remain viable,” said Markos Kesidis, owner of a beach bar in the Halkidiki area.

  “Many want to work seven days a week due to the seasonality of the work, but are not allowed to, which is absurd,” he said.
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