Energy crisis: High costs close hotels undermining the extension of the tourist season

The high energy costs faced by hotel units are undermining efforts to extend the tourist season according to hotel officials.

The tourist season will not be lengthened but shortened with the costs required to pay for the operation of the hotel, noted, to ot.gr, the president of the Hoteliers’ Union of Rhodes, Mr. Manolis Markopoulos, who announces the sequential closing of hotels, bringing the season to an end sooner.

He explained that the energy costs for an average hotel in September increased by 60-70% compared to August and almost three-four times higher than same month last year. The units are no longer available and many hotels will be forced to close earlier as they face these costs, he noted. Already in Rhodes some hotels are transferring their customers to others in order to “save energy” and reduce costs.

Good season

The season went very well in terms of arrivals, but this was thanks to the efforts of the hotels, which were highlighted by the major sponsors of Greek tourism, adds Mr. Markopoulos, at the same time underlining that the operating costs are here and in fact particularly increased compared to other years. The Rhodes Hotel Association is planning a press conference next week to highlight this problem.

“We are called in 2022 to return what we borrowed during the pandemic period and rightly so, even this summer there were refunds to large tour operators from large contracts, while we also had cases of costs, three and four times higher than usual, in electricity, per month. Consider that this is done for six or seven months and therefore all this “gnaws away at” the operating profit, this is clear”, recently stated the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers, Mr. Grigoris Tassios, speaking to Antenna West Crete 97.1.

Keeping distances

The hoteliers seem to keep their distance from the announcements of the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias to extend the season by attracting Northern European tourists during the winter season.

The extension of the tourist season can’t just be done “extraordinarily” for this year… Such things need planning months in advance, not because the price of energy is currently high and some may want to vacation in Greece in the winter to avoid paying for the heating, for example, or something else in Germany, when at the moment, Majorca and respectively Turkey, have abudant reservations for the winter season, because they have been in this “sport” for 20-25 years and when at the moment a large supermarket chain in Germany, advertises packages for 660 euros per person with a plane ticket to Antalya. Therefore, it is not so simple for a plane to land in, for example, Chania or Heraklion, and then for the customer to go to a hotel to stay. At what price? At what cost? With what measures and provisions for customers who will move outside the hotels? With what configuration and with what plan”, said Mr. Tasios.