Andreas Metaxas, CEO of Metaxa Hospitality Group (center), and regenerative tourism expert Anna Pollock (center), pictured with members of the Metaxa Hospitality Group team and contributors to the documentary “2258: A Story about the Regeneration of the Earth,” during the Athens event “Cultivating the Ground for Regenerative Hospitality.”
Metaxa Hospitality Group is positioning regenerative agriculture as a strategic pillar of its hospitality model, linking food production, local communities and long-term tourism resilience through an integrated approach that extends beyond hotel operations.
The strategy was outlined this month in Athens at an event titled “Cultivating the Ground for Regenerative Hospitality”, where the Group presented its program “Regenerating Lassithi Plateau and its People – Towards a Sustainable Food Destination”. The event brought together business stakeholders and partners for a discussion on the role hospitality can play in restoring natural and social ecosystems.
Metaxa Hospitality Group CEO Andreas Metaxas addresses attendees during the Athens event “Cultivating the Ground for Regenerative Hospitality”, where the Group presented its regenerative agriculture initiative and screened the documentary “2258: A Story about the Regeneration of the Earth”.
At the core of Metaxa Hospitality Group’s strategy is the Lassithi Plateau initiative, which connects organic–regenerative food production with hospitality operations and aims to strengthen local communities while improving environmental resilience.
The initiative focuses on training producers and building a model of cooperation between hotels and farmers that the Group frames as “regenerative hospitality”.
From soil health to hospitality operations
Metaxa Hospitality Group CEO Andreas Metaxas.
Metaxa Hospitality Group CEO Andreas Metaxas has positioned the shift as a response to accelerating climate risks, arguing that the sector must move beyond incremental sustainability. “We cannot talk about climate change but about a climate crisis,” he said during the Athens presentation of the initiative, adding that tourism “must take the share of responsibility that corresponds to it”, particularly along the agri-food–gastronomy–hospitality chain.
At the heart of the program is the Lassithi Plateau on Crete, where the Group has been implementing regenerative farming practices since 2023 and integrating the results into its culinary offering. According to the program’s outline, eight farmers are currently involved, cultivating 12 categories of fruits and vegetables across 40 stremma (4 hectares) of land. Over the past two years, the initiative reports supplying 41.5 tons of produce to the Group’s resort kitchens.
Metaxas also underscored the personal connection behind the choice of place.
“For me personally, the Lassithi Plateau is a place I love and feel deeply connected to,” he said, describing the area as integral to his family’s story and the Group’s broader vision. He added that “now is the moment to listen to the land and submit to its rules”, warning that without change there may not be cultivable soil in the decades ahead.
The discussion was further shaped by the screening of “2258: A Story about the Regeneration of the Earth”, an independent documentary by EyeQ Creative Media Productions, created with the support of Metaxa Hospitality Group and inspired by the Lassithi Plateau program.
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The film explores the consequences of soil degradation linked to intensive farming and the climate crisis, while examining the prospects and trade-offs of a regenerative shift for agriculture and hospitality.
External validation for a regenerative model
Regenerative tourism expert Anna Pollock speaks during the Athens event, with a slide outlining the link between regenerative agriculture and regenerative hospitality in the background, highlighting practices such as soil protection, water management, local procurement, nutritious food, staff and guest education, and waste management.
Keynote speaker Anna Pollock, an international expert in regenerative tourism, highlighted the link between farming practices, visitor experience and community resilience.
“If you go away with any one sentence… it’s about creating the conditions for life to thrive,” she said, arguing that hospitality can act as a catalyst by forging practical synergies that improve food quality and strengthen local well-being.
Anna Pollock outlines “The Big Shift” from extractive to regenerative models, highlighting a transition toward hospitality and agriculture systems designed to restore ecosystems, support communities, and create the conditions for life to thrive.
For Metaxa Hospitality Group, the message was clear: regenerative agriculture is not being treated as a side project, but as an operational and destination strategy – one that ties the competitiveness of tourism to the health of the places that host it.
The initiative builds on a broader sustainability push by Metaxa Hospitality Group, which recently became the first hospitality group in Greece to earn Organic–Regenerative Agriculture (ORA) certification for its hotel lands, reinforcing its commitment to soil health and responsible food systems.
As the Group celebrates 50 years of authentic Greek hospitality, its long-term strategy continues to blend environmental stewardship with community engagement and guest experience.
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