The Daskalantonakis-Grecotel group has announced the completion of its acquisition of five new hotel resorts on the islands of Mykonos and Corfu with a total of 1,800 beds for 61 million euros. The company has budgeted €43 million for the modernization and the expansion of those units, which raises the total amount of Grecotel’s investment plan to €104 million.

Therefore, with the pandemic still ongoing, the Grecotel group is expanding its portfolio to 40 four- and five-star hotel complexes, totaling 17,000 beds. Its new acquisitions are the Mykonos Star and Mykonos Thea (Agios Sostis), and the Nostos, Vassilis and Gelina hotels on Corfu (along with the Hydropolis aquapark). The units are ready for operation and their addition will create 1,000 jobs, the group said in a statement.

“This business move reflects our confidence in the country’s investment environment and the real potential of tourism as a realistic lever of growth for the Greek countryside,” noted the chairman and founder of the Grecotel group, Nikos Daskalantonakis.

“The pandemic will pass. Tourism is a human experience and cannot be substituted online,” he added. “I have always believed that people who love their country will also want its prosperity, so we want to increase the employment of the local workforce, offering added value to our hotels.”

Grecotel’s takeovers are part of its investment program that also includes unit reconstruction and new lifestyle hotel products and luxury resorts on Crete, Kos and Corfu. The program has been in motion since last October.

On Mykonos, the choice of Agios Sostis considerably enhances Grecotel’s presence in ultra-luxury boutique resorts. On Corfu, the new hotels will constitute part of a new, greater seaside resort of 350 square kilometers along a long beach that will bear the name Grecotel Costa Botanica. This is located at Acharavi, some 25 kilometers from Corfu Airport.

The 40 Grecotel units are spread across popular island destinations such as Crete, Corfu, Mykonos, Rhodes and Kos, as well as mainland locations such as Athens, Sounio, the Peloponnese, Halkidiki, Larissa and Alexandroupoli.

This article was first published on ekathimerini.com