John Fotis

John is a marketing consultant specializing in tourism & hospitality marketing.  During his 17 years of professional experience he became highly involved in the Greek tourism industry, holding in the past positions such as Vice President External Relations in Rhodes’ Playboy Casino,  General Manager in Rhodes’ Tourism Promotion Organization, and Assistant Marketing Director in Rodos Palace, Greece`s largest 5 star hotel & conference center. In 2000, he joined Market Plan, a marketing consulting and market research company in Rhodes-Greece, as a partner and senior marketing consultant.  His consultation appointments included, among other, marketing strategy, planning and coordination of campaign implementation for various hotel companies, destination management companies, non-profit associations and tourism organizations throughout Greece. Moreover, he co-developed Gu.E.S.T™ (Guests’ Evaluation & Satisfaction Tracking), a systematic approach measuring hotel guests’ satisfaction, and LoyaltyClub, a web based software as a service application enabling independent hotels to develop and maintain loyal guests.

John serves as member in a number of tourism related committees.  As Head of Research in the Research Tourism Body of the Chamber of the Dodecanese, he coordinated the Rhodes and Kos tourism surveys for 2004, 2006 and 2008 being also responsible for the statistical analysis and reporting.  Moreover, he served as member of the scientific committee in Rhodes` International Tourism Forum.

Currently, John is researching the impact of social media in consumer choice behavior for travel related products as a fulltime PhD researcher in Bournemouth University (UK), where he is also a PT Lecturer and Unit Leader for “Marketing for Tourism & Hospitality: Principles & Practice” (Masters Level).

John holds an M.Sc (Distinction) in Tourism Marketing from University of Surrey with focus in the use of psychographics and lifestyle as segmentation tools in tourism markets, and a B.Sc (Distinction) in Business Administration from the American College of Greece with double major in Marketing Management and in Management & Organizational Behaviour.