AHF forum: Hotel&Tourism industry has to brace for GDPR regulation

The sixth two-day regional Adria Hotel Forum (AHF) ended in Zagreb on Thursday, with a recommendation that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have to be implemented at the EU level and enters into force at the end of May and that the hotel&tourism industry has to prepare itself well for the regulation. AHF as the largest hotel investment conference in southeast Europe attracted 350 participants who discussed many topics including the sector's readiness for GDPR in the tourism sector.

"The hotel industry, which often uses data about their guests will have to prepare well and convince its associates to respect the GDPR regulation. The problem isn't in collecting data but the way that data is used and with whom it may be exchanged," attorney Marija Zrno advised.

One of the topics discussed on the last day of the forum was the current global topic of the industry - the lack of qualified workers. Haris Neofytidis from the Metropol Palace compared the wages of waiters in five-star hotels saying that in Greece they earned 700 to 800 euro a month, in Bulgaria (400 euro) and in Serbia (250 euro).

"Greece is a very mature tourist country with one million people working in that sector, however, it is difficult to find workers in resorts," Neofytidis added.

It was heard that there is a lot of talk of investing in rooms and premises yet there was little mention of investing in people and their development, and some countries like Bulgaria and Croatia felt the problem in finding workers when they joined the EU.

Bulgaria has since introduced more practical training and less higher education in tourism as it needs more people on the ground than managers.

On Wednesday, the first day of the forum, Tourism Ministry State Secretary, Frano Matusic, said that some 950 million euro of investments in the hotel industry was planned in Croatia for 2018, which would be 13% more than in 2017. This should result in 40 new hotels.

(Hina)

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