With a large, historic anniversary edition entitled «Building a Miracle,» the Rhodes Hoteliers Association honored the progress and work of the Rhodes hotel industry from 1949 to the present day, its contribution to the economic prosperity of the island, as well as its influence on the tourism industry throughout Greece.
The book/volume covers the history of Rhodes since the war, how the first steps were taken towards developing tourism, the efforts of the inhabitants to create content of interest to visitors to the island, the architectural changes over time, the role of the dictatorship and the transition to democracy, the international agreements for the first direct connections between European cities and Rhodes and later with individual Greek destinations. The narrative of history continues to the present day and the way in which the pandemic has been managed by tourist destinations.
It is a book full of memories that unfolds the history of tourism in Rhodes, which is now the driving force behind the local economy, while making special reference to the pioneering entrepreneurs on whom the island's tourism development was based.
The book was presented to the public with Dimitris Avramopoulos, Minister of Tourism for many years, as the keynote speaker.
«We are all here to honor hospitality and tourism diplomacy, which succeeds where politicians fail,» emphasized former minister Dimitris Avramopoulos during his speech.
A special guest at the event was hotelier Vasilis Minaidis, honorary president and lifelong member of the Rhodes Hoteliers Association since 1965. «All we did was work. We focused on nothing else but how to please the visitors who honored us by coming to Rhodes. We must continue to work in the same way, taking care of our visitors and looking after our employees.».
The president of the Rhodes Hoteliers Association, Manolis Markopoulos, spoke about a publication dedicated to the people who devoted their lives to the tourism industry, while the author of the book, journalist Nektarios Kalogirou, speaking about the entire project, emphasized the need for further historical research into this entire period, in order to shed even more light on the events that laid the foundations for and subsequently shaped the Greek tourism industry.
The book is available for purchase through the social enterprise and organization «For Nature,» and for every copy sold, the organization plants a tree in the burned forest areas of Rhodes.
