TOURISM-DRIVEN EMPLOYMENT IN GREECE: UNPACKING REGIONAL SPILLOVERS AND THE ROLE OF MARKET DYNAMICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35774/jee2025.03.486Keywords:
international travels, market dynamics, regional economy, regional spillovers, services.Abstract
Inbound tourism performance is an important factor in the overall business cycle in Greece. In 2016-2022, the change in inbound tourism exports constituted about a half of the GDP change. This paper analyses the structural issues of employment effects of the inbound tourism in Greece in 2009-2022. Correlation analysis was used to find associations between tourism indicators and employment in accommodation services; agriculture; food and beverage industry; food and beverage service activities; libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities; water collection, treatment, and supply. No significant effect on employment trends in air transport and tour reservation services was found. Tourism is especially important in some regions of Greece, where it also provides spillover effects to employment in local suppliers. Regression models were used to estimate the positive effects on employment in accommodation establishments, total regional employment and its sectoral structure, unpacking regional spillovers and the role of market dynamics.
JEL: Z33, Z32, M31, F16, P48, R23.
References
Betcherman, G., Giannakopoulos, N., Laliotis, I., Pantelaiou, I., Testaverde, M., & Tzimas, G. (2023). The short-term impact of the 2020 pandemic lockdown on employment in Greece. Empirical Economics, 65, 1273-1307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-023-02381-2
Diakonidze, M. (2019). Development of tourism services and employment perspectives: A case study. European Research Studies Journal, 22(3), 132-148. https://doi.org/10.35808/ersj/1462
Dimelli, D. P. (2017). The effects of tourism in Greek insular settlements and the role of spatial planning. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 8, 319-336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0364-x
Dorta-González, P., & González-Betancor, S. M. (2021). Employment in tourism industries: Are there subsectors with a potentially higher level of income? Mathematics, 9(22), Article 2844. https://doi.org/10.3390/math9222844
Drakakis, P., Papadaskalopoulos, A., & Lagos, D. (2021). Multipliers and impacts of active sport tourism in the Greek region of Messinia. Tourism Economics, 27(3), 527-547. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816620902328
Eurostat. (n.d.). Database. Retrieved May 6, 2025, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database
Grobelna, A., & Skrzeszewska, K. (2019). Seasonality: Is it a problem or challenge facing future tourism employment? Implications for management. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, 15(1), 205-230. https://doi.org/10.7341/20191518
Imam, T., & Ananda, J. (2022). Machine learning for characterizing growth in tourism employment in developing economies: An assessment of tourism employment in Sri Lanka. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(16), 2695-2716. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1991895
Hellenic Statistical Authority. (2025a). Arrivals and nights spent in hotels, similar establishments, tourist campsites and short-stay accommodation establishments: February 2025.
Hellenic Statistical Authority. (2025b). Labour Force Survey: February 2025. https://www.statistics.gr/en/statistics/-/publication/SJO02/-
Inchausti-Sintes, F. (2015, September). Tourism: Economic growth, employment and Dutch disease. Annals of Tourism Research, 54, 172-189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.07.007
Kalantzi, O., Tsiotas, D., & Polyzos, S. (2023, February 25). The contribution of tourism in national economies: Evidence of Greece. ArXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2302.13121
Karoulia, S., Gaki, E., & Kostopoulou, S. (2015). Assessing resilience in tourism: The case of Greece (ERSA Conference Papers ersa15p1260). European Regional Science Association. https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa15/e150825aFinal01260.pdf
Karoulia, S., Gaki, E., Kostopoulou, S., & Lagos, D. (2016). Greek tourism sector and signs of resilience (ERSA conference papers ersa16p691). European Regional Science Association. https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa16/Paper691_StellaKaroulia.pdf
Mamula, M., & Duvnjak, K. (2017). Modelling the employment in tourism – Case study of Croatia. International Journal of Business Administration, 8(3), 37- 44. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v8n3p37
Manzoor, F., Wei, L., Asif, M., Zia ul Haq, M., & ur Rehman, H. (2019). The contribution of sustainable tourism to economic growth and employment in Pakistan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(19), Article 3785. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193785
Marques Santos, A., Madrid González, C., Haegeman, K., & Rainoldi, A. (2020). Behavioural changes in tourism in times of Covid-19 : Employment scenarios and policy options [JRC Science for Policy Report]. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/00411
Medová, N., Macková, L., & Harmacek, J. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on hospitality industry in Greece and its treasured Santorini Island. Sustainability, 13(14), Article 7906. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147906
Menegaki, A. N., & Agiomirgianakis, G. M. (2019). Risk dimensions of a vertical Chinese expansion in the Greek tourism sector: The Chinese side. International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, 8(3), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJDSRM.2019.099691
Obadić, A. & Pehar, L. (2016, December). Employment, capital and seasonality in selected Mediterranean countries. Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, 19(s1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1515/zireb-2016-0012
OECD. (2017). Financing approaches for tourism SMEs and entrepreneurs (OECD Tourism Papers 2017/3). https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/8d06572a-en
Papadopoulos, O., & Ioannou, G. (2023). Working in hospitality and catering in Greece and the UK: Do trade union membership and collective bargaining still matter? European Journal of Industrial Relations, 29(2), 105-122. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801221104943
Papadopoulos, O., & Lyddon, D. (2020). Deregulation and institutional conversion in the Greek hotel industry: An employment relations model in transition. Industrial Relations Journal, 51(1-2), 92-109. https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12282
Papadopoulou, G. (2020). An overview of the cruise industry in Greece from 2010-2019. SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, 70(1-2), 39–57. https://spoudai.org/index.php/journal/article/view/104
Papatheodorou, A., & Arvanitis, P. (2014). Tourism and the economic crisis in Greece – Regional perspectives. Région et Développement, 39, 183-203. https://regionetdeveloppement.univ-tln.fr/wp-content/uploads/9-Papatheodorou.pdf
Ribeiro, L. C. de S., Lopes, Th. H. C. R., Montenegro, R. L. G., & Andrade, J. R. D. L. (2018). Employment dynamics in the Brazilian tourism sector (2006-2015). Tourism Economics, 24(4), 418-433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816617736409
Santos, E. (2023). Does inbound tourism create employment? In E. Santos, N. Ribeiro, & T. Eugénio (Eds.), Rethinking Management and Economics in the New 20’s (pp. 483-490). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8485-3_22
Sergo, Z. (2019). Inter-generational employment spillovers from tourism across the EU. Ekonomska Misao i Praksa Dubrovnik, 28(1), 97-125. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/322670
Tosun, C., Çalişkan, C., Şahin, S. Z., & Dedeoğlu, B. B. (2023). A critical perspective on tourism employment. Current Issues in Tourism, 26(1), 70–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.2021155
Vázquez Vicente, G., Martín Barroso, V., & Blanco Jiménez, F. J. (2021). Sustainable tourism, economic growth and employment—The case of the wine routes of Spain. Sustainability, 13(13), Article 7164. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137164
Vourdoubas, J. (2020). The nexus between agriculture and tourism in the island of Crete, Greece. Journal of Agricultural Studies, 8(2), 393-406. https://doi.org/10.5296/jas.v8i2.16602
Vuković, D. B., Maiti, M., & Petrović, M. D. (2023). Tourism employment and economic growth: Dynamic panel threshold analysis. Mathematics, 11(5), Article 1112. https://doi.org/10.3390/math11051112
Wijesundara, Sh. R., & Ranasinghe, R. (2015). Perceived barriers for employment in tourism industry among rural communities. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 6(3), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJABIM.2015070101
World Travel and Tourism Council. (2023, June 22). Greek Travel & Tourism sector to approach full recovery this year [Press release]. https://wttc.org/news/greece-eir-2023
Yakavenka, V., Vlachos, D., Papadopoulos, A. M., Klieštik, T., Orphanidou, Y., Efthymiou, L., & Psilla, D. (2023). Features of foreign working force for Cypriot hotel industry. In V. Katsoni, (Ed.), Tourism, Travel, and Hospitality in a Smart and Sustainable World, 231-242. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29426-6_14
Received: August 7, 2025.
Reviewed: August 25, 2025.
Accepted: September 17, 2025.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).



