Tourism: Tug-of-war between hoteliers and tour operators for better prices gets stiffer

The brawl between Greek hoteliers and international tour operators for the contracts and prices for the 2024 season continues unabated. For 2023, Greek hoteliers after a tough battle achieved an average increase of 10%- 12% and now their goal is to add another 5% on top of that for 2024, as industry players note to ot.gr.

What seems to dominate the discussions is on the one hand the strong demand for Greece as it is now a given that “Greece sells” and on the other hand the increased operating costs of hotel units due to the energy crisis and inflation.

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On the part of the hoteliers, however, what they seem to be seeking is to take advantage of the positive climate for our country as a tourist destination with a price increase that will enable the hotels to face this increased cost.

As the president of Panhellenic Hoteliers Organization-POX, Grigoris Tasios, recently pointed out, “2022 was a good tourism year, but we are not completely smiling because of the increased operating costs, which is certainly not a Greek phenomenon, it has to do with global challenges. It is clear that the hotel industry has shown enormous adaptability to crises, as it did during the pandemic and although it came out “wounded” it is obvious that Greece has the possibility to gain another share in tourism and to support the national economy, and Greek society, even more. We see this in the demand Greece has in the major foreign markets.” Mr. Tassios emphasized that there is great interest in Greece for the coming years as well.

This strong demand was expressed in all the international tourism exhibitions held recently. According to the ongoing survey carried out by Mindhaus of the Vando group on behalf of the European Travel Commission (ETC), Greece with a preference share of 5.6% remains in fourth place among the preferences of European tourists behind France (8.2%). Spain (7.6%) and Italy (7.4%) and ahead of Germany (4.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Portugal (4.3%), Austria (3.8 %), Belgium (3.1%) and United Kingdom (3.1%).

How prices are formed

The good tourism image of Greece is also expressed in the prices achieved by the hotels of Athens this April. According to the monthly trivago Hotel Price Index in April the average room price in Athens reached 144 euros up by 21.01% compared to the previous month, March and higher by 27.43% compared to April 2022. It is the second highest average monthly price since April 2022, trailing only the price of the previous September which reached 153 euros.

The above achievements do not indicate anything other than what the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, Yiannis Retsos, recently noted to state news agency AMNA that “Greece is cashing in on the very good brand that was built during the pandemic when in 2020 it was the only country Mediterranean which opened its borders with complete success. We took the test and passed as a country that can handle a serious crisis.”

Mr. Retsos underlined that there is optimism that Greek tourism in 2023 will contribute more than 18.2 billion euros to the Greek economy, i.e. surpassing the record tourist income of 2019.