Greek Hoteliers: Jurassic Era Operations Will Make You Extinct
The story you are about to read is about how big business here in Greece is hyping sustainability just to cover up status quo operations. Case in point, a hotel entity Metaxa Hospitality Group, and setting really bad examples. Sooner or later, the big resort owners are going to have to evolve, or…
To make things easy, let me just quote from a statement by Andreas Metaxas, the CEO of Metaxa Hospitality Group, from the 5th International Hospitality Forum of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels the other day. The famous Crete hotelier offered this before the forum:
“It was with great pleasure that I participated, along with excellent international speakers, in the panel for the integration of sustainability in the daily practices of hospitality, within the framework of the 5th International Hospitality Forum of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels. I had the opportunity to present the policy of our Group as well as our future plans towards an even greener hospitality. At Metaxa Hospitality Group we firmly believe that our mission is to support the local communities and destinations in which we operate, to protect the environment and to contribute to the local and national economy. In this context, sustainability runs horizontally through all our activities, from the experience of our visitors, the selection of our suppliers, our investment plans and our corporate governance.”
Several weeks ago I would have applauded Metaxas for holding the banner of sustainable tourism so high. However, a recent revelation put me on the trail of the company’s real plans for Santorini and Crete. These plans included bulldozing part of the pristine south coast of Santorini Island to erect yet another exclusive resort. And I guess the narrative makes other hoteliers doing the same hype-job feel good. But there are many who are adamantly opposed to what Metaxa and other key resort groups are doing.
As an example, from the onset of the planning building process, the Hellenic Society of Environment and Culture (Ellet) went to court to try and stop Metaxas from desecrating this delicate Vlychada area of Santorini. There are many people up in arms about the situation. I’ll leave off the legal situation for now. Once my eyes snapped open about Metaxa Group, it took me only a few minutes to come across the Save Vlychada Σώστε τη Βλυχάδα, another group bent on preventing the environmental carnage these resorts cause.
Santorini, the sinking over-tourism litmus test for Greece, is not the only planned expansion of Metaxa Hospitality Group. A pristine beach in Lassithi Prefecture here on Crete is also in the works at remote Tholos Beach. As if Crete does not already have enough hog trough all-inclusives to run local tavernas out of business. Excuse my curtness here, but this is what is happening all over Crete. The all-inclusives leveraged by TUI and other big-time travel agencies are destroying what is left of the Greece people flock here to enjoy in the first place. If travelers want South Beach in Miami, they should go to Florida, not to the land of the ancient Minoans. One more paved parking lot on a beachfront in Santorini or Crete, and the ghost of King Minos will be heard moaning after midnight everywhere on the island.
The new “program” of sustainable wonders Metaxas and his PR people are conjuring, is not new at all. Back in 2012 the company churned out a promotion that was introduced as a new “Green” hospitality campaign, but which ended up being an ad for pools, beach umbrellas, and Vaudeville-like traditional Cretan dance (see video above). In the end, what these hotels do is create walled villages, where all the money flows to the owners, instead of to the real villagers. It’s not a new game. But the people standing behind are being advised to bill it as “climate” and “eco-friendliness” superlativeness.
It’s a sham in my opinion. I asked several prominent experts on Crete about the dangers for the island’s future, and not one had a positive outlook where all-inclusives are concerned. I’d lambasted Metaxas the other day over claiming one thing, and doing another where sustainable hospitality is concerned. His PR people finally responded by directing me to the narrative the company created, instead of answering the simple question put to them, and I quote:
“At what point should future resort developments be outlawed?”
I also asked Metaxa Hospitality Group’s PR director if there is unlimited room for expansion on Crete, Santorini, and other Greek island destinations? To be honest, I didn’t really expect a response, and I was not wrong. The email I received regurgitated what is on their websites, and what Andreas Metaxas is spouting to other hoteliers. They went on to suggest that Metaxa follows the letter of the law where development are concerned, and that their “sustainable” practices are recognized and accepted by the community.
Clearly, the people at these Crete resort operations never adhered to the philosophies and advice of my good friend Brian Solis, one of the world’s most respected digital evangelists. Solis coined the term “Digital Darwinism” some years back when most brick and mortar businesses were coming to terms with a new age. Here’s what he said about the obtuse, and the cost of losing relevance:
“Digital Darwinism is claiming businesses everywhere. As technology and society evolve, leaders face the need to adapt or die. Doing so stars with rethinking what it takes to compete for market share by competing for relevance. However, executives do not know what they do not or choose not to know. In my book, you either compete or relevance or you don’t.”
Well, not all of the community relies on paid advertisement, questionable travel awards, and the idea that paying employees and buying local tomatoes is all that is required to save the planet. And in case you question my curiosity over Metaxa, their boss claiming his company is making the world a better place is stretching the truth way too thin. To get a clear view of the real sentiment out there, I asked one of Crete’s most knowledgeable experts, the creator of the Cretan Beaches guide, Alexandros Roniotis if he thinks all-inclusive resorts should be regulated or limited from now on. His answer was quick, and decisive:
“I would say yes, as I think there are already too many, let’s leave some places cement-free.”
For those unfamiliar, Roniotis personally cataloged and created the most extensive travel guide to this island in existence. He spends each summer with his family, enjoying the Eden-like wonders Crete has to offer. And there’s nobody who understands the island’s real value more. Every rock on every shore of this island knows his name. But he’s not the only expert who is viament about preserving what’s left of Crete’s mystique and beauty.
Seeing statements like the one Metaxas made before Greek hoteliers on LinkedIn, a B2B social network, spotlights perhaps the most onerous part of Metaxa Hospitality Group’s ongoing campaign. The bad example key hoteliers set before a wanting industry, the precedent set, just makes matters so much worse. Many of these hoteliers look to Andreas Metaxas and others like him, in order to set their own courses. Imagine the owned and paid media these powerful companies control, disseminating a message that is largely subterfuge. The industry as a whole tends to follow what it perceives as success. But is Metaxa Group’s roadmap really a long term sustainability success? I think most of us realize, it is not. Pretty soon, these dinosaurs of the Greek hotel industry will start to lose relevance, except for their fellow Jurassic hotel operators.
The only doable sustainable future we have is, more or less, divergently opposed to what Andreas Metaxas and his colleagues here on Crete are considering. This report from Skift reveals what should, and what will become the booming trend of the future. Intrepid Travel’s Zina Bencheikh, who is managing director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, frames the situation nicely with:
“What we found with MEET is that they were really strong in Europe, and Europe has always been a very challenging continent that has been impacted by overtourism. We have a responsibility as an industry to drive the change because it’s about the planet — it’s not about just our individual businesses and profits and all of that. It’s about being able to have a planet we can visit and travel without harming it.”
Conversely, the narrative from Metaxas and the other Crete resort moguls contains no mention of overtourism, and the mutual gratification society surrounding them seems to think filling up hotel beds is and staying afloat equals the future. If you look at the industry here as a whole, you find nothing but this style of single mindedness. But Metaxa Hospitality Group and all the other operators in Greece have a huge problem. Sooner or later the narrative is going to have to match the action.
The Skift report also reveals traveler expectations via a Booking.com sustainability trend report. A key finding was that 63% of US travelers believe people have to act now to save the planet for future generations. And while providing recycling bins, getting rid of plastic straws, and buying local turnips are good practices, turning Mother Earth into one gigantic Ft. Lauderdale party destination is not exactly what 21st century travelers envision as good for the planet.
And transforming pristing landscapes and experiences into Metaxas family concrete villages is not a solution for the 65% surveyed who want to “do their part to disperse the positive benefits of travel to less frequently visited destinations and communities.” But, this is how marketers see the whole eco-friendly trend. As something to be manipularted and metastasized into a profit machine. I asked conservationist and sustainability theorist from Crete, who preferred not to be named at this time, about Metaxa Hospitality Group and the mass tourism these resorts depend on earlier today. Here is a part of what the tourism expert had to say.
“These resort groups rely on credit and mass tourism to try and maintain the same margins they did decades ago. Their only method is growth, not development, but creating more beds to satisfy the creditors and their business plan. Mass tourism on Crete is dead already, and they know this. The island is burnt out. Their limited vision only focuses on bringing more and more people, and this will eventually destroy it all.”
I could go on forever hammering Metaxa Hospitality Group over the head for paying lip service to a fundamental planet-wide emergency, but the truth is Andreas Metaxa is not alone. Not one of the dozen or more Crete resort owners I’ve talked to has even given a second thought to out of the box thinking on sustainability. The overall consensus is, to keep doing what has worked in the past while painting a colorful sustainability portrait for the world to see.
A big part of the problem is that few decisionmakers out there are bold enough to run against the current these big hoteliers are riding. And everyone knows things go very slowly here on Crete. What has to happen is that these business owners are going to have to get past the convenience of platitudes and headlines, to really address the problems we all face. In the end, if they do not, they will go broke. The more people who get behind Intrepid Travel and the MEET Network, the faster the industry will develop truly wide arching and sustainable practices.
