Speaking at the first open conference of the Confederation of Greek Businessmen’s Tourist Accommodations, held on the sidelines of the Expo Hotel at the Tae Kwon Do stadium, President of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) Andreas Andreadis pointed out that the 2016 season had ended with a rise of 1.5 million tourist arrivals, the total of which amounted to 25 million. Andreadis added that the increase in arrivals resulted in the creation of over 50,000 new jobs in the industry, but underlined that despite the improvement in the number of arrivals, inbound tourism-related revenue was expected to record a slight drop due to limited spending by holidaymakers on a global scale. Andreadis cautioned that the major challenge facing Greek tourism for 2017 would be the management of the refugee crisis and how the country would project its image to foreign markets, calling on the the media to play a key role in this respect. Meanwhile, the issue of the imposition of a new overnight charge for tourists in hotels was another pressing matter discussed at the convention, with hoteliers expressing concerns that it could negatively affect arrivals for next year. Yiannis Retsos, the President of Association of Greek Hotels said the new levy would be a serious blow to the competitiveness of Greek hotels. He stressed that the issue of the levy and whether its cost would burden the customer, was at the centre of talks among Tour Operators in London last week.