Sotirios Varelas

Dr. Sotirios Varelas is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Tourism Studies of the University of Piraeus with the subject “Hospitality Business Strategy and Tourism Organizations”. He holds a PhD from the Department of Business Administration of the School of Economics, Business and International Studies of the University of Piraeus. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greek Chapter of the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT). He has 15 years of professional experience as a scientific consultant to tourism organizations and is the creator and manager of a start-up company on virtual tourism www.netourwork.com. In the past he was a scientific consultant at the Ministry of Tourism, the Greek Tourism Organisation and the Peloponnese Region. Within his responsibilities he has designed and implemented destination management and marketing activities at national- regional level (airline recruitment, digital marketing, participation in b2b events, fam press trip, consultations, experiential products, identity creation, etc). He has authored and participated in more than 40 study projects on topics such as Tourism Observatories, Sustainability, Destination Management, Destination Strategy, DMMO, Destination Marketing and Branding. He has collaborated with several research centres such as the Institute of Regional Development, the University of Peloponnese, the Laboratory of Policy Evaluation and Programme Development and the Research Centre of the University of Piraeus. He teaches in the Postgraduate Programmes in Tourism Business Administration and Business Administration at the University of Piraeus and in the Undergraduate Programme in Tourism Management at the Hellenic Open University. Since 2010 he has taught at several academic and professional institutions such as the University of Piraeus, the University of West Attica, the University of Peloponnese, the University of Piraeus, the Institute of the Hellenic Tourism Business Association (INSEETE), the Hellenic Society of Business Administration (HSE) and the Air Force War College. He has been appointed by the Assembly of the Department as the student internship coordinator and coordinator of the academic advisors of the Department of Tourism Studies. Dr. Varela was the creator and coordinator of the Graduate Program in Tourism Business Administration and the Center for International Tourism Research at Neapolis University. His scientific papers have been published in several international journals and he is a member of the editorial board of several journals and conferences. He frequently writes articles and participates as a speaker on issues related to tourism and tourism business.