Efstathios Velissariou was born in Munich, Germany and was educated in Greece and Germany. He is a Doctor (oec. publ.) in Tourism Economics from Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, and he holds a Diploma of Business Administration from the Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki.

He is Vice President of the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly (formerly TEI of Larissa), responsible for the Informatics and Communication Technologies and the Infrastructure Systems of the Institution.

From 2005 to 2013 he was Head of the Department of Tourism Business Administration at the Technological Educational Institute of Larissa and since 2000 he is Lecturer in the Postgraduate Program of Tourism Business Administration at the Hellenic Open University.

He was Senior Consultant in the Business Consulting Office IN.DE.CO.  S.A. and he has participated in several European Business Projects, in the framework of Interreg, Phare CBC, NOW (New Opportunités for Women), TERRA Programme, E.U.-Town Twining Program, Leonardo Da Vinci, Phare Lien Programma and many others.

In addition, Dr. Velissariou is author of books, has contributed in many collective editions and published papers in international scientific journals in the field of tourism. He has presented papers at International Scientific Conferences and has conducted extensive research in the field of Tourism and Economics.