The attraction of visitors from India could help to extend the tourist season in Crete, it was suggested at a conference entitled “Chania-India: building bridges of touristic cooperation”, held on Thursday 19th March at the Chania Hotel and organised by the Hellenic-Indian Chamber of Commerce and Economy and the Hoteliers’ Union of the Nomos of Chania.
Georgia Korakaki, Advisor for Modernisation and Development at the Hellenic-Indian Chamber and its head of Greece–India Relations, emphasised that the Indians “choose different periods for their holidays than Americans and Europeans. They travel outside the classic holiday period, i.e. in October and November, when they have a major national holiday, as well as December and January, and they also travel a lot in March-April with the Festival of Colours and the closure of the schools. As you can understand, this provides significant opportunities for extending the tourist period. And Crete has a clear advantage here, as it can operate 12 months of the year because of the climate.
Describing the profile of the average Indian tourist, Ms Korakaki said amongst other things that:
– The middle class in India is estimated to number 300 million people.
– The average middle-class Indian spends €3,000 to €7,000 on their holidays, while those figures can be tripled for luxury trips.
– Most of them travel in organised family groups and choose multi-destination holidays of 8-10 days. This means that Greece can easily be incorporated into a European tour initially and afterwards be developed into a destination on its own.
– They want an organised experience and a clear programme. Indians want to know what they will be doing from the moment they leave their hotel to the time they return.
– They look for a good price-quality relationship and the possibility of upgrades.
– They always want Indian cuisine or gourmet vegetarian dishes to be available.
– They look for hospitality and quality of service.
– They also seek destination weddings – a market estimated at over €50 billion – and can bring 150 to 400 guests for 2-3 days.
Ms Korakaki added that “the Indian market is not a developing market, but one which can determine the international pattern of tourism for the coming years”.
President of the Hellenic-Indian Chamber Angelos Tsavdaris noted that there would be “significant and multi-level possibilities and increased tourist flows with a more organised and sustainable coverage of India,” adding that: “It is not a question of whether this market is developing but of whether Greece will manage to position itself strongly in the new global tourist reality.”
“I believe that Greece has all the preconditions to succeed in this,” he said. “Our country has unique comparative advantages – a thousands of years-old culture, world-class destinations, high-quality tourist services and a culture of hospitality as the basic element of Greek identity.”
An initial collaboration has already been developed in this direction with the Region of the Ionian Islands. The event received a message of greeting from the Deputy Foreign Minister Haris Theocharis, and in person from the president of the Chania Chamber of Commerce and Industry Antonis Rokakis, while there was communication with the managers of tourist offices in India.
(Haniotika Nea, 19/03/26)