Authors: Evangelia Kasimati, Panagiota Dionysopoulou, Yiannis Nasoufis

Title: The insurance of Tourism Enterprises in Greece and the role of insurance in small and medium enterprises

Abstract

Today, the issue of risk management is a major issue in business. The same is true of tourism companies which by nature provide services which are subject to a significant degree of risk, therefore there is a need to develop plans for the management of existing risks. One of the most important methods of risk management for tourism enterprises and especially small and medium tourism enterprises is the insurance of the risk involved in their business activity. In this way, their liability is transferred to another place, ie to the insurer, which ensures the viability of the companies and their competitiveness, since their customers in any case of insurance risk and consequent damage will be able to claim a relevant compensation from the insurance company. The present research paper aims to examine whether and to what extent the provision of insurance products to the clients of small and medium tourism enterprises contributes to the competitiveness of enterprises. The purpose of the research is to investigate the views of the entrepreneurs themselves in the tourism sector regarding the role of their liability insurance in making their businesses competitive and to examine whether the research hypothesis that the provision of insurance products is true. to customers of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises contributes to the competitiveness of enterprises. The research data were collected from 51 adults, business owners in the tourism sector. During their work, the employees were asked to fill in a relevant questionnaire. It was envisaged that the participants would be in favor of their liability insurance. The results of the present work confirmed the specific research hypothesis as well as the findings of the relevant literature review. The contribution of the research is located in the empirical support of the trend that exists in the field of small and medium tourism enterprises to insure their civil liability, a fact that contributes decisively to their competitiveness and sustainability.