Sotirios Varelas
Assistant Professor at the Department of Tourism Studies of the University of Piraeus
Dr. Sotirios Varelas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism Studies at the University of Piraeus and Director of the Tourism Excellence Laboratory at the same university. He has 16 years of professional experience as a scientific advisor to tourism organizations and is the creator and manager of a start-up company specializing in virtual tourism, www.netourwork.com. In the past, he was a scientific advisor to the Ministry of Tourism, the Greek Tourism Organization, and the Peloponnese Region. As part of his responsibilities, he has designed and implemented destination management actions at the national and regional level, as well as marketing actions (attracting airlines, digital marketing, participation in B2B events, fam press trips, consultations, experiential products, identity creation, etc.). He has authored and participated in more than 50 research projects on topics such as tourism observatories, sustainability, destination management, destination strategy, DMMO, destination marketing, and branding.