Quality Tourism

We have been hearing a lot about "quality tourism" in Greece in recent months. I want to muse on what that means. In terms of the small island of Skopelos and particularly the low- key village of Glossa where we live, it bears little relation to the grandiose visions of policy-makers. Attracting the uber-rich to spend as much as possible may seem like a sensible strategy, but in the micro-business world which underpins tourism in Greece, it makes little sense.

Anyway, it is starting from the wrong end. What we want out of the wealthiest 2% of our visitors may be loads of money, but it makes more sense from here to talk about what the other 98% want out of their Greek holiday. In other words the “Q” word. Taking quality to mean fitness for purpose, then high quality means meeting expectations to as near to 100% as possible.

We rent three properties of our own and act as letting agents for other owners, both Greek and foreign.

Our three properties have been nearly full from early May and are booked through until early October.

Why is this? We are not superheroes of tourism, but we work hard and professionally at what we do and I suggest that we are getting some things right that other owners may overlook. Evidence for this is that approximately 40% of our customers are returners or have booked on recommendation of a friend.

I believe there are five main issues.

Knowing the market

The market changes all the time. When I first stayed in hotels as a young adult in Europe and the UK, it was common to have a shared bathroom down the hall. Today this would be inconceivable. Thirty years ago, the package tour was the most usual way for northern Europeans to holiday in other countries. “Cheap and cheerful” was the mantra.

Today visitors still want good value for money, but they no longer accept the standards of those days. The uncritical, “it is good enough for a holiday letting” no longer holds good, except at the very cheapest end of the market. People expect the same level of comfort, equipment and security that they have at home. And we must equip to the standards of ALL our customers – brikkis for Greeks, cheese slicers for Scandinavians.

In Glossa and Loutraki, our port, we have seen the number of Greek tourists decline. This trend is likely to continue while the austerity measures work their way through the Greek economy. To replace these with non-Greek visitors, we must meet expectations.

Responding to the market

This leads us to the obvious conclusion that we must adapt our product if we wish to be successful. One small example of this: cheap airlines and charter flights have increasingly restricted the baggage allowance (now commonly 15 or 20 kilos per person) and expensively penalised excess weight. So, we now provide beach towels, snorkels and masks and advertise the fact, so our customers can pack a greater choice of clothes within their baggage allowance.

The best customer is a returning customer. Many rooms and apartments have built up a group of returners. But the danger is resting on this base and taking it for granted. Returning customers know what is on offer and will accept the old standard more readily than new customers. As these regulars drift away – because they are older or have more (or less) to spend - the next generation will not take up the places because tastes and expectations have moved on. And we must move on too.

Inventory

We are often surprised at the poor level of equipment on offer. There are still apartments for rent where there is no electric kettle. This will not do in 2011 – or more importantly in 2012. We cannot expect our guests to boil water in a saucepan, even though it is the norm for many Greek studios.  And you must provide a proper set of pans – frying pan and two proper saucepans with lids as a minimum. Three years ago, most of our visitors ate out almost every night. Now they have less money and they expect to have the equipment to be able to make a proper dinner in their accommodation.

It goes without saying that cups, plates and glasses must be matching sets. And there must be enough of the right kind: water glasses, wine glasses and spirit glasses – full sets for the number of tenants, at least.

A toaster is a standard piece of equipment and there must be at least one sharp kitchen knife. The list is long – colanders, chopping boards, cheese graters and if there is an oven there must be roasting and baking dishes.

This is not an exhaustive list, but a suggestion of what meets modern expectations. After all, we want them to come back next year and to tell all their friends to come too.

Marketing

This leads us naturally to marketing – and I don’t mean advertising.

We are competing for customers in a very different way from five years ago. The market is global and the choice is no longer “shall we go to France, Spain or Greece this year” the whole world is a destination and it is all in the same shop window as us – the internet.

But Skopelos does not have a place in this shop window. Instead the island has several mini-market websites. We need the ONE Skopelos website which lists and signposts all accommodation, all real estate companies in fact all businesses and all available in good English as well as Greek? The Skopelos.eu domain name is owned by a company in Austria and for sale at 1,420 euro.

Of course, we all need our individual websites, which must be updated regularly and which must allow for online booking and enquiries. It is important to make it easy for customers to pay securely online. An internationally recognised system such as e.g. PayPal makes this simple for micro businesses.

And enquiries by email must be responded to within two hours. We often receive email enquiries from people who are looking online at that moment at several holiday options and sending a number of enquiries to different owners. The first one to respond is likely to get the business.

There is much more to an internet presence than a website. Nowadays businesses need to be on FaceBook and Twitter and if you can manage to get some content on YouTube, so much the better. This blog is our (tardy) addition to our toolbox.

The way people use the internet is changing. Recommendation / rating sites are becoming the most powerful influence on spending choice. Our potential customers are now likely to search “highest rated accommodation in Greece” on Google. We need to have our feedback online and a proper Skopelos website could do that too. Trip Advisor for hotels and FlipKey for rooms and apartments are where people find their next holiday, particularly in the North American market. We have to be there.

People will say, “we don’t have time to do all this online stuff” but that is the equivalent of having a shop, never changing the window display and leaving it closed at random times.

Planning

Let me end with planning. It is – for us – three quarters of the way through the season. We are becoming tired from long hours and the heat of summer. We look forward to calmer and cooler days. But now is the time to plan the next campaign. For example, how will we encourage bird-watchers and walkers next spring to extend the season? How can unheated rooms and apartments be winterised at reasonable cost? These are Skopelos wide issues and they need to be tackled by the island and the region as a whole with help from the national tourism ministry.

Here’s another: next year is the Olympic Games in London. Lots of our visitors come from the UK and we want to attract more. Many sports fans (mainly men I suspect) will be reluctant to be too far from their TV sets. We have seen this resistance in World Cup years. How about Skopelos doing a deal with Nova, for example, to allow a full satellite sports coverage to be installed in as many rooms, apartments and villas as possible? Then we can say: “have your holiday in Skopelos AND watch the Olympics”.