Tourism firms Prez.: Tourism will be the star of the economy

The traffic of the Easter days sends optimistic messages for a very satisfactory summer season, although for the most part it concerns domestic tourism. However, the mood for travel recorded by international surveys was confirmed in fact and among the Greeks, with the departure from the urban centers for the days of Easter reminiscent of 2019.

The president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) Mr. Giannis Retsos expressed via twitter his confidence that tourism will once again be the protagonist of the Greek economy .

“After two years of pandemic, with the war near us, but also with inflationary conditions that affect everyone’s lives, we are called upon to cope with a new normality. Tourism, again a protagonist, will strengthen local communities and the economy. Happy Easter!” wrote Mr. Retsos.

The president of the Panhellenic Hoteliers Federation, Grigoris Tassios, in his statements spoke of high occupancy that reaches up to 90% in popular destinations, such as Corfu, Santorini and Mykonos, while as he said, there are also foreign tourists on these islands. Mr. Tassios also added that the tourist traffic is moving well in a part of the Peloponnese, in the prefecture of Ioannina, Pelion, the islands of the Cyclades and Crete.

The Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, is also optimistic, stating that “bookings are increasing, destinations are increasing but we are not complacent and with a door-to-door strategy I plan to visit many neighboring countries, such as Romania and Serbia that bring road tourism to Greece. countries that have a strong tourist brand in Greece such as the Scandinavian countries “.

Reservations

That this year will be a different year for Greek tourism despite the war in Ukraine is reflected in the data published at regular intervals by the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasting (ITEP) on behalf of the Hotel Chamber of Greece (HCD). The Chamber has commissioned ITEP to conduct a weekly panel survey exclusively for hotels of continuous operation in mountainous areas and cities, to capture the basic parameters of average price and occupancy in this part of the hotel industry.

The results of the measurements show that the hotels of continuous operation are increasing their speed month by month. The results for March 2022 that in all the hotels of continuous operation opened 85.0% against 78.1% in February and 79.2% in January.

The average occupancy rate of all hotels operating from 16.3% in January rose to 22.7% in February to 31.2% in March.

A much better picture is expected in April, while from May 15 onwards, with the first major arrivals from abroad, it is estimated that all seasonal hotels will have opened.

Then, for the period June-September of the current year, according to tourism factors, a very good mobility is recorded.

One thorn, however, is the operating cost of hotels, the increase of which currently exceeds 25%. The tourism industry expects general government support measures in the event that there are no measures at EU level.