Why Asklepieia Was Founded— Greece’s Health Tourism Ecosystem
Before Asklepieia
With over 25 years in eHealth, Giorgos Kakoulidis has co-founded HL7 Greece — the international standard for health data exchange — and serves as co-founder and president of the Greek Health Informatics Association (GHAI). Through Apollo, his parent company, he had seen nearly everything: Greece debating digital health before it became a global topic, and international collaborations launching with enthusiasm only to end up shelved.
But beyond all that, there was something else. A problem that most people acknowledged in words but no one addressed in practice.
Greece has two strong sectors operating in parallel without systematic collaboration: tourism and healthcare.
The tourism industry has infrastructure, hospitality, experience, and international accessibility. The medical community has expertise, quality, and specialization. Two sectors that, if connected properly, complement each other naturally.
Yet advanced digital services were absent — for patients, healthcare providers, and hoteliers alike. The wellness offerings of Greek hotels, high quality and internationally competitive, remained largely unknown abroad. No organized scheme existed with structure and criteria — not a simple directory, but an ecosystem capable of positioning Greece as a recognized international health destination.
This was not a theoretical problem. It was an everyday reality. And it was visible year after year.
This is the essence of health tourism: connecting two sectors so that each supports the other. From this connection, both the Greek patient and the domestic traveler benefit — while simultaneously strengthening the country’s position internationally. This is the mission of Asklepieia.
The First Attempt
Before Asklepieia, there was a previous attempt. It did not succeed. Years later, that failure proved to be the most important lesson.
The effort launched in the form of an association — the idea being to bring doctors, providers, and industry executives into a common scheme. The idea was sound; the execution went differently. Within the founding core, trade union dynamics blocked progress at critical moments. It was not a matter of people — it was a matter of structure. An association, by definition, is not built to make fast decisions, take risks, or place quality above consensus.
A foreign partner also joined the scheme, with a significant investment. The vision was strong on paper and came with a corporate structure. But corporate structure means committees, approvals, and slow processes — the opposite of what the project required.
The investment did not produce results. But it delivered two lessons that had not been apparent before.
First: the partner was the wrong structure. Not the wrong people — the wrong structure.
Second: Asklepieia would work when its founder answered the phone himself, made personal commitments, and made decisions without waiting for consensus. This was not a leadership preference — it was a necessary condition. It works in direct relationships. In committees, it does not.
The Decision
There was no single morning when everything began. The decision matured over the months following the investment’s failure.
Two things became clear.
The first: an independent structure was needed — a company capable of raising capital, moving quickly, and making investment decisions without waiting for consensus. Without this structure, the idea would remain an idea.
The second: existing solutions did not fill the gap. There were directories, isolated initiatives, and general-purpose platforms. But no one had built an organized ecosystem connecting health and hospitality, with quality criteria and a structure capable of scaling. The gap was not accidental — it was structural.
Asklepieia was incorporated as a joint-stock company (S.A.). Not an association, not a cluster — meaning an organized network of cooperating businesses without legal standing. An S.A., because the goal was a company with the mindset of a startup: fast decision-making, clear corporate governance, and the ability to attract investment and scale. With a culture of innovation, not conferences.
The transition required structural changes at many levels. But Asklepieia was not starting from zero — it was starting from twenty-five years of knowledge about how digital health works, and how it does not work, in Greece.
Starting With the Few
The first believers were not random. They were people who had already tested a collaborative model on their own terms.
Nikolaos S. Kouvelas, Spiros Silvestros, and the brothers Hercules and George Goussias — dentists who had already built a small but functional collaborative scheme in their field. They understood what cooperation means in practice. They chose to join from the beginning.
Theodoros Kouskos, a hotelier in the North Aegean with a scientific center for thermalism and wellness, brought exactly what was needed: ready infrastructure and the willingness to share it.
Antonis Yakintos, a physiatrist, owner of one of the largest rehabilitation centers in the country and president of the sector’s association, joined not as a simple provider but as a foundational partner. Today he is a shareholder.
Others expressed interest. The moment of commitment, however, proved more demanding than anticipated. They chose to wait and see.
This revealed something valuable: building such a scheme does not require the entire industry. It requires the few who decide without waiting to see who moves first. These are the ones who make things happen. The rest come later, when they see it works.
Others followed — each with a defined role. Giorgos Antypas took on funding programs and advisory services. Anastasia Lelitsoudis took on education and certification. An Expert Council was established, bringing depth across every relevant field: Ioannis Pallikaris, Yannis Pollalis, Yannis Samiotakis, Antonis Filippidis, Michalis Papacharalampous, Sotiris Papaspyropoulos, Meletios Tzaferis, Athanasios Vozikis, Dr. Alkestis Agiorgiti, Nikos Koureménos. Without them, Asklepieia would have been one person’s idea. With them, it became an ecosystem.
Many observers argued at the time that “collaboration is the Achilles’ heel of the Greek.” That this kind of scheme could not be built in Greece. The difficulty is acknowledged. The fatalism is not.
What the Market Said
In the first months, conversations were held with over one hundred Greek providers and hoteliers. The same three needs surfaced again and again: practical tools, a network that actually functions, and a partner who picks up the phone.
Asklepieia was not alone in making this observation. It was simply the first to take the decision seriously enough to act on it.
Where Things Stand Today
The business model has been stress-tested under demanding conditions. Five innovation awards have been received, all with a financial prize. Asklepieia is registered in Elevate Greece, the official registry of innovative businesses in the country. Since 2021, the international edition of Newsweek Country Reports has referenced the work to a broad international audience. A partnership with Swiss Approval International Inspection and Certification Body underpins the provider and hotel evaluation system, so that patient trust rests on internationally recognized criteria rather than marketing materials.
Today, Asklepieia connects healthcare providers and hoteliers from across Greece in a single ecosystem. To our knowledge, no comparable effort has been built in Greece — not at this scale, not with this structure.
It serves three parallel audiences: the Greek patient seeking organized access to the right specialists, the domestic traveler combining hospitality and wellness, and the international patient seeking reliable care in a European destination. The same need for connection — only the distance changes.
Looking Ahead
This is not a retrospective. It is the opening of a new phase.
The foundations have been built: an organized network of health and hospitality, international partnerships, institutional recognition. The conversation now shifts — from “what could be done” to “how do we scale what already works.”
Healthcare providers, hoteliers, investors, and experts who believe Greece can become a recognized health destination are invited to connect. Asklepieia is not a one-person project. It is the project of everyone who decides to execute.
The goal is simple: bring the patient closer to the doctor who suits them — whether from Athens or from Milan.
For those who see a point of collaboration, reach out directly. The next phase has begun.
George Kakoulidis, CEO & Founder, Asklepieia Health Cluster
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Treatment options, clinical outcomes, costs, eligibility, and legal or regulatory requirements may vary by individual circumstance and by jurisdiction. Always consult a qualified physician — and, where relevant, a qualified legal advisor — before making decisions about diagnosis, treatment, or care arrangements.
