Tourism: Athens will judge this year’s record – Concerns about the recession in Germany and expensive tickets

Hotel price increases, the slump of Germany and the high prices of air tickets are some of the topics that hoteliers are discussing and believe will determine the course of arrivals and revenues this year.

At the moment, optimism for this year’s course is widespread, however, the most reserved see some small clouds on the horizon that require some reflection. The latest worrying development is the announcement that Germany has officially entered a recession and it is a question of how this will affect the international and Greek tourism market.

The tourist season has opened since the beginning of May with charter flights, Mr. Manolis Giannoulis, president of the Chania Hotel Association, tells Ot.gr about the level of pre-bookings as well as the number of scheduled air seats both for Crete and the whole of the country indicate that the year will go well.

He avoided referring to the percentage of growth in arrivals and revenues in relation to 2022 and “reservedly” as he says, he estimates that this year we will have a record year provided that Athens also does well. However, much will depend again this year on last-minute bookings, which will once again play a dominant role.

Airline seats

Regarding the scheduled airline seats according to the Airdata tracker of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE) and INSETE that the number of total scheduled seats for this year is increased by 2.2% compared to 2022. The seats from United Kingdom and USA are up by 3.6% and 1.4% respectively while from other destinations the numbers are lower. In particular from the Netherlands the drop in the number of scheduled seats is 1.5%, Italy 2.5% and France 8.3%, while the drop is greater from Germany (-14.9%).

There is a satisfaction with the bookings, Konstantina Svynou, president of the Kos Hoteliers Union and president of the Institute of Tourism Research and Forecasts, notes to ot.gr, however, she points out the “belly” recorded in the interest and bookings from Germany. We hope, however, that the gap will be filled in the coming months. However, in both Kos and Rhodes and in general the Dodecanese, the year this year will close higher than 2019, as it happened last year as well.

The average of increases

Regarding hotel prices, Ms. Svynou points out that nationwide almost half of the hotels were booked with the Tour operators increasing 11% on average for this year. From there on, other hotels moved, higher and lower. There are increases, she adds, however, he estimates that overall the hotel product of our country is still undervalued compared to the international market. Satisfaction is also recorded in Santorini where, according to the president of the island’s hoteliers’ association, Antonis Iliopoulos, an increase in bookings by 10-15% compared to 2019 is expected this year.

Among the positive elements is the reappearance of the Chinese after two years of absence from the island. However, the Americans have the first reason, although this year a concern is expressed as they too seem to be affected by the increases in air ticket prices, which he characterizes as excessive and influencing decisions.

Also for the same problem is the increase in the operational and financial costs of the hotels as well as the lack of workers. The deficit in workers on our island reaches 20%, notes Mr. Iliopoulos.