On the construction of a new iconic five-star hotel Hotel V Thessaloniki progresses Elektra Hotelssince it secured through appropriate competition Church of Greece a plot in her ownership in the center of the capital. property is located on the corner of Tsimiski and Ethniki Amini streets, opposite the Piraeus Bank building and has an area of ​​1400 square meters. According to the development and lease agreement, the term of the concession is set for 49 years with the right to extend for another 49 years. The tender was awarded to Electra Hotels last Friday.

Plan

The investment plan of Electra Hotels provides for the construction of an 11-storey hotel with a capacity of 165 luxurious rooms and a total built-up area of ​​6,500 square meters. According to the information, the investment is expected to exceed $20 million. Once completed, this will be the company’s seventh hotel. It is recalled that in addition to the Electra Palace in Thessaloniki, the group has in its portfolio three luxury hotels in Athens, Electra Metropolis Athens, Electra Palace Athens and Electra Hotel Athens, one in Rhodes, Electra Palace Rhodes and one in Kefalonia. , hotel and spa Electra Kefalonia.

The tourism prospect of the co-capital is huge as it has the potential to become a dynamic urban destination.

The planned new hotel block aims to add luxury infrastructure to Thessaloniki at a time when demand for travel in the co-capital is increasing as it becomes the city’s holiday destination, also helped by the recent modernization and expansion of Macedonia Airport. It is estimated that the tourist prospect of Thessaloniki is huge, as it has all the cultural, historical, natural, culinary and other characteristics for this kind of thing, and its proximity to Central Europe is even greater than that of Athens.

Thessaloniki was negatively impacted last year by the lack of flight operations by major airlines such as Ellinair and Astra, while important markets such as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were absent due to the war. Thus, it recovered about 85% of 2019 passenger traffic, while the remaining 13 regional airports set an all-time record, surpassing the passenger traffic of 2019, the last year before the pandemic and a record year for Greek tourism. This year, however, Fraport-Greece CEO Giorgos Vilos says he expects Macedonia Airport to approach 2019 levels, as international passenger traffic already exceeded the corresponding figures in the first quarter.

New flights

The airport is already operating as a regional hub to some extent, with significant support from companies such as Aegean, G. Vilos told “K”. This particular company has already added new routes from Thessaloniki to Tbilisi, Cologne, Yerevan, Bucharest, as well as Barcelona and Venice. But Sky Express is also gradually investing in “Macedonia” and launched a route to Larnaca this year. At the same time, Eurowings is adding routes to Austria, and Smartwings to and from the Czech Republic, and other companies are increasing their routes to Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is a city with the characteristics of a metropolis and it is natural for it to recover at a slower pace, while it needs to develop its international appeal through the cooperation of all agencies involved.

The role model is Athens and the “This is Athens” initiative to strengthen its tourism product, which was implemented at the end of the last decade with the cooperation of the Municipality of Athens, SETE, Aegean and Athens International Airport.