Athens Riviera Luxury Awards<\/a> at One&Only Aesthesis in Glyfada (September 17), where he is serving as a member of the judging panel, he talks about the experiences, challenges and future of Greek yachting.<\/p>\nHe is not the typical yachting entrepreneur, the kind who started out by buying a boat as a hobby and ended up opening a marina. He is the man who spent his life giving orders on Hellenic Navy ships and now gives advice to yacht owners, and perhaps that is why he talks about yachting with a strictness rarely encountered in this field.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I was a young child, I loved the sea and sailing. While I was in the Hellenic Navy, I took part in many offshore races as skipper and crew on the sailing boats of the Hellenic Naval Academy, but in my free time I always found the opportunity to escape for a few days with friends aboard a boat to the islands of the Aegean or Ionian. After my retirement in 2010, I turned my love for the sea and sailing into a professional pursuit as well, creating two companies, which focus on the management of marinas, ports and leisure boats.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athens Riviera as a yachting destination<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe development of the Athens Riviera in recent years has been truly impressive. The Attica coastline from Piraeus to Lavrio, from the Acropolis to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounio, is transforming from a mere point of embarkation into a standalone, world-class destination for luxury yachting and marine tourism. The Athens Riviera is now acquiring a lifestyle dimension. Yachting is no longer an isolated activity, but is becoming the central core of an integrated ecosystem that fits perfectly with high-end gastronomy, exclusive resorts, premium shopping and entertainment. Yachting does not simply mean landing in Athens and immediately leaving for the Aegean, to go to Mykonos, Paros or Santorini. The Riviera itself is now becoming a destination. This is a strategic shift in the policies of recent governments which, in my view, will bring enormous economic benefits to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge, of course, exists, and it is a specific one. \u201cThe biggest challenge today is for the Athens Riviera to move from developing capacity and basic berthing to developing quality and comprehensive service. Demand for yachting is constantly increasing, marinas are being upgraded, but unfortunately berthing spaces are no longer sufficient (at least on the Athens Riviera), and they are far fewer than the number of professional and private boats operating in the area. By contrast, several private marinas, taking advantage of the shortage of spaces, are increasing berthing fees without, however, providing customers with services of corresponding value.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, yacht management has become more demanding since the Covid period. The owner or client now expects a complete package of luxury service and management for leisure boats: technical support and maintenance, refueling, crew services, provisioning, security, VIP services and immediate resolution of any problem. I would therefore focus on four key areas: infrastructure and technical services, where the construction of new marinas is required; human resources, as the quality of yacht management depends on people with high technical expertise and an international service culture; service coordination, because the client wants one-stop management and a single point of contact; and sustainability and environmental management, in what are known as blue ports. The challenge is no longer to convince the yachting client to come to the Athens Riviera; it is to offer a level of service comparable to that of the leading Mediterranean yachting hubs and make them choose the area as a base, not simply as a point of transit. The Athens Riviera is currently at a pivotal turning point, where yachting is transforming from a simple stopover on the way to the islands into an autonomous, high-end, world-class destination. Modern marinas should evolve into benchmarks of service excellence that combine infrastructure for small and large vessels, strict environmental criteria (ESG) and bespoke services, unlocking enormous economic added value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five opportunities and an award<\/h2>\n
As for the opportunities opening up in the coming years, the Rear Admiral has a ready-made list: \u201cI see five major opportunities for yachting on the Athens Riviera in the coming years. First, transforming the Riviera into a home-porting destination and not simply a charter base. Second, creating a truly premium luxury yachting ecosystem. Third, connecting yachting with the Riviera\u2019s new tourism product, where I believe perhaps the greatest added value lies: The Ellinikon, the new hotel and residential developments and the upgrading of the coastal front can create a unified product encompassing yacht, hotel, gastronomy, shopping, wellness and culture. Fourth, extending the season beyond the traditional July-August months, with short yacht experiences and weekend yachting in spring and autumn. And fifth, the sustainable and smart marina, with better energy management and infrastructure for cleaner forms of propulsion. Overall, then, the great opportunity is not simply more yachts. It is more value per yacht. Having a boat come to the Athens Riviera, stay longer and spend more in the local economy. If this is achieved, the Riviera can evolve from a gateway to the Greek islands into an autonomous international yachting hub of the Eastern Mediterranean.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, he is not speaking only about his own businesses but about a body of boat owners whom he institutionally represents, and this gives his participation in the judging panel of the first Athens Riviera Luxury Awards a different weight: \u201cTaking part in the judging panel of the first edition of the Athens Riviera Luxury Awards is a great honor, as well as a significant personal responsibility for me, as a member of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, where I institutionally represent the entire yachting and marine tourism sector in our country. At a time when the Athens Riviera is redefining the global map of premium luxury tourism, this is a unique opportunity for all of us to highlight and reward the people, businesses and projects that are setting new standards of excellence, sustainability and innovation in the area. I believe the time has come for Greece and the Athens Riviera to claim the place they deserve in global yachting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From commanding warships and sailing as a cadet at the Hellenic Naval Academy, to being at the helm of two active companies managing marinas, ports and leisure boats: Vasilis Politis\u2019 career is inextricably linked to the sea, and today he institutionally represents Greek leisure boat owners through his position on the Board of Directors of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":550982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7119],"tags":[],"real_estate_agency":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551752"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551757,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551752\/revisions\/551757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551752"},{"taxonomy":"real_estate_agency","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noupou.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/real_estate_agency?post=551752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}