The countdown to the election of a new Board of Directors and President of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises has begun (YOU). The last meeting of the current board took place on Tuesday, when it was decided to convene a general meeting of SETE, which will be held on 31 May. According to “Kathimerini”The only candidate, at least for the time being, for the position of the President of the Association is Yiannis Paraskis, CEO of Athens International Airport.

The strong support that seems to be gathering around him stems from the will of many key members of the association, new leadership “to reflect the growing awareness by the Greek market and society that tourism it is a multi-faceted activity that directly or indirectly benefits many other industries and businesses outside of it. Hotel -which is undoubtedly the backbone of our tourism- such as air Transportwhere the candidate in question comes from.

At the forthcoming general meeting, the new board of directors will be elected at the morning caucus, as scheduled, which is expected to meet at noon the same day before the evening caucus. The events take place with the expiration of the second three-year term of SETE President Yannis Retsos. At the last meeting of the board of directors, the day before yesterday, in a clearly emotionally charged atmosphere, due to the big problems of the last three years, their successful overfulfillment, as well as the new historically high rates of Greek tourism, G. Retsos, who has been president of the organization for two consecutive three-year terms, applauded to all council members.

In passing, he is leaving a legacy of successfully managing the pandemic, generating arrivals and receipts from abroad at historically high levels in 2019, which are expected to be exceeded this year, and he is also credited with developing a national tourism plan in which, among among other things, there are hundreds of interventions that have to be done in both public and private infrastructure in order to ensure the sustainability of tourism activities.

In the May 31 elections, Yannis Paraskis is the only candidate.

As everything now shows, he will be succeeded by Yannis Paraskis, General Manager of Athens International Airport (IAA) since 2007, who previously (2001-2007) also served as Deputy General Manager. He joined the AIA staff after an international course in the university field and as a corporate strategy business consultant with AT Kearney and Deloitte. His resume also includes positions such as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athens Airport Fuel Pipeline Company SA and ACI Fund, an international non-profit organization that provides training and broader support to airports in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). He participates as a member on the boards of directors of companies, academic organizations and collective business representations in Greece and abroad.

After a number of international awards for 20 years in the aviation industry, as President of the Airports Council International (ACI) in the European sector (ACI-Europe, 2007-2009) and in the global organization (ACI-World, 2011-2013), was recognized by the international aviation community with the highest award “CAPA Airport Manager of the Year” in 2015. He studied Economic Engineering (MSc) and holds a PhD in Operational Research from the University of Hamburg.