Large hotel chains invest in Thessaloniki's tourism potential
Large hotel chains invest in Thessaloniki's tourism potential
  Investments  |  Economy  |  Tourism  |  Hotels  |  Thessaloniki

Large hotel chains invest in Thessaloniki's tourism potential

Seven five-star hotels, with a total investment reaching millions of euros have been added to the city's potential in recent years, especially after 2017.
RE+D magazine
31.10.2022

Investment capital inflows are keep flocking in Thessaloniki's hotel industry and in particular for luxury hotels development, as the new characteristics and landmarks of the city that makes investors more confident for its tourism growth potential.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια «έκοψαν κορδέλα» συνολικά επτά πεντάστερες μονάδες, οι ANTIGON, NO 15 ERMOU, MONASTY, ONOMA, ON RESIDENCE, S HOTEL και VANORO. 

Seven five-star hotels, with a total investment reaching millions of euros have been added to the city's potential in recent years, especially after 2017. As a result, beds in five-star units in the city are now close to 5,000 and the investments' pipeline is long enough, with the prospect some of the new luxury hotels to open doors in 2023.

Luxury hotels tend to attract mainly tourists of specific nationalities and show occupancy ranging from about 60% to about 70%, according to data released by the Thessaloniki Hotel Association (EXTH).

More specifically, currently there are 21 five-star hotels operating in Thessaloniki, which offer approximately 4,700 beds.

In recent years, a total of seven five-star units have "cut the ribbon", ANTIGON, NO 15 ERMOU, MONASTY, ONOMA, ON RESIDENCE, S HOTEL and VANORO.


New hotels in the city


Following the challenging period of the COVID19 pandemic, the Thessaloniki's city center has recently been enhanced with its first hotel under an international brand, the five-star "MonAsty Autograph Collection by Marriott International", which has 100 rooms and suites, according to SWOT Hospitality. The hotel is located next to Aristotelous Square, and a stone's throw from Thermaikos Gulf. The opening of "ON Residence", the new five-star boutique hotel of the partnership between "Grivalia Hospitality" and "TOR Hotel Group", which returned to the city's culinary map - after 28 years of absence - the historic restaurant "Olympos Naoussa". The amount of the total investment for the "awakening" of the preserved property, its transformation into a five-star hotel with 60 rooms and suites and the reopening of the restaurant (it took 18,200 hours just to maintain and reproduce the decorative elements), reached €20 million.

Also in 2022, the "S Hotel" was inaugurated in Kalapothaki, offering 28 five-star rooms in direct contact with the history of the city, since a glass floor on the ground floor of the unit allows visitors to admire archaeological finds, dating from the 4th century AD. X. until the end of Ottoman rule. In the completely renovated Gavriiloglou Tobacco Warehouse building (1937), which has been designated by the Ministry of Culture as a "work of art" and is located on Dodekanisou Street, is located one of the also new arrivals in the city's five-star market, the "Vanoro Hotel" of Brownfield, with 45 rooms and suites.

During the period 2021-2022 they also opened the five-star "No 15 Ermou" with 45 rooms on the street of the same name in the center of Thessaloniki and the "ONOMA Hotel" by Anatolia Hospitality, the "smart" hotel with more than 80 rooms on Monastiriou Street . A few years earlier, in the summer of 2018, the "Antigon Urban Chic Hotel" had opened its doors in Antigonideon, under the signature of Hotel Brain, which was included in the list of "The Leading Hotels of the World".


Projects in the pipeline


Apart from those already operating in Thessaloniki, brand new five-star hotels are scheduled to be added to the city's industry in the coming years. The Israeli group "Brown" is expected to open its first hotel in the city in 2023, in the 1929-1931 preserved eclectic building "Vienna" on Egnatia Street, as its founder, Leon Avigad, recently announced at a conference. pointing out that by the end of next year it is planned to operate the other -fourth- unit of Brown, in the old tobacco warehouses "Michailidis" (Dodecanese). In fact, even though the listed building "Vienna" was the first that the group acquired in Greece, with the aim of converting it into a hotel of approximately 80 rooms, the bureaucracy ... left the investment behind, compared to those in Athens. As the Israeli businessman has pointed out, the same procedures, which in Athens are completed in one year, require up to three years in Thessaloniki.

Another five-star unit is expected in Thessaloniki, the "NYX Thessaloniki", which will be put into operation by the Fattal group at the junction of Tsimiski and Katouni streets. Developments on the start of work and the creation of the unit, which will include around 40 rooms, are also expected in 2023, while the managing director of Fattal's European arm, Roni Aloni, has stated that Thessaloniki was a key reason to come in Greece the group, which traditionally invested in city hotels in Europe and mainly in Germany, United Kingdom and Israel.

The two-star "Tourist Hotel" on Mitropoleos Street is expected to be converted into a five-star hotel by the Thessaloniki businessman, Kostas Amoiridis.