This is the time of year when hotels, restaurants and other catering establishments are seeking to recruit staff for the coming tourist season. The back pages of Haniotika Nea are filled with small ads for posts ranging from managers to receptionists to barmen, cooks and chambermaids.
Work in the hotel and restaurant industry is intense and poorly paid, and packed into eight or nine months of the year. People drop in and out of seasonal work as it suits them, with the result that every year a new round of hirings has to take place. In the intervening three months people have a well-earned rest or help harvest the family olive crop, and maybe draw unemployment pay if they are eligible. However, the much hoped-for extension of the tourist season is beginning to take hold, with Chania becoming a “destination” for Christmas and the New Year, and a scattering of tourists even appearing in the Kolymbari area over the past few weeks. As a result, perhaps over time the pattern of seasonal employment will change. Meanwhile cruise ships continue to dock at Souda, disgorging bus loads of passengers onto the streets of Chania on fine days.
Job fairs help to sound the market
Job fairs are one way in which employers can access a large number of hopefuls in a short space of time and get an idea of the staffing problems they may anticipate during the coming season. One such event is the 5th Pancretan Careers Day for Hotel Units in Crete which took place on 21st January in Heraklion and on 23rd January at the Alkali hotel in Chania. The event was organised by the Pancretan Association of Hotel Managers and the Region of Crete for the fifth year running, with the aim of bringing the hotels into immediate contact with prospective staff.
In its introduction to the event posted on its website, the Municipality of Heraklion struck an optimistic note for the future of the tourist industry in Crete:
“Crete with its special and unique characteristics is famed for its hospitality, its natural beauty, its rich cultural heritage and traditions, its food which includes a wide variety of tasty and high quality products, and already constitutes one of the most important and popular tourist destinations worldwide.
“In the coming years, because of the increasing global tendency to travel and take holidays, a series of planned investments in infrastructure, such as the new and modern airport at Kastelli, the completion of the VOAK and a series of major private tourist investments, greater development is expected in Crete, and as a result a corresponding increase in the availability of jobs.”
Messages from the Chania event
The messages emerging from the Chania event last Friday were that the prospects for this year’s tourist season are good, especially in Chania, with pre-bookings showing a rising trend, while at the same time hundreds of jobs remain to be filled at Cretan hotels. Speaking to Haniotika Nea, the Association of Hotel Managers’ vice-president and director of the Caldera Group, Manousos Psaroudakis, said :
“There was good attendance, especially in the morning from people looking for work. This is the fifth year running the career day has taken place and it is now an institution for both Chania and Heraklion. Anyone coming to look for work is sure to find a job before they leave.
“But there are still gaps in the sector. There are quite a few hundred and even thousands of unfilled jobs in the sector in Crete and more generally. This gap has become normalised to a large extent, but it has not been filled. There are vacancies in all areas, both in jobs which have immediate contact with the public, such as reception, public relations, chefs, the kitchen or cleaning, or in a hotel’s other operational areas.”
Regarding the prospects for this year’s tourist season, Mr Psaroudakis said: “It’s too early to talk about the year, but all the signs are positive. The pre-bookings are good. Reservations from the countries which are the main suppliers are going well, especially in Chania where the Scandinavian market is particularly developed. Reservations are at a satisfactory level with an upward trend.”
(Haniotika Nea, 24/01/26, www.heraklion.gr)
Cruise ship docks at Souda
Cruise arrivals continue unabated at Souda during the winter months. Monday 26th January saw the arrival of the Viking Star with 910 passengers. The ship arrived early in the morning from Santorini and left in the afternoon for Nafplio in the Peloponnese. It was the 5th cruise ship arrival at Souda in the New Year, and the second by the Viking Star.
