This year's tourist season for Greece is considered positive and only positive, and whatever complaints are heard, these do not correspond to the tourist data of the year, Michalis Vamiedakis, President & CEO of ALLSUN HOTELS & Development Consultant of DANAOS TRAVEL, noted to Athens-Macedonian News Agency. In fact, he explains that what is being observed this year is that "in some areas and in some hotels, 100% occupancy, which everyone took for granted during this period, simply does not exist".
This current 10% to 15% drop in occupancy compared to last year in August, is what brings grumbling, noted Vamiedakis adding that these units are now forced to fill with offers 30% below their original offering. Trying to give answers to the phenomenon recorded this year, i.e. increasing arrivals to Greece and at the same time decreasing occupancy in some tourist units, Vamiedakis speaks of something that is self-evident and is explained as follows: Now visitors from abroad have reduced their overnight stays, from 15 to 7 days and from 7 days to even more, that is to six or even 3 days. "If the hoteliers compare the average stay they have this year compared to last year, they will see it, said Vamiedakis adding that the daily air connections between Greece and all European countries reinforce the above trend. At the same time, the European households face financial problems, which is also reflected in the daily expenditure of foreign visitors to Greece this year.
In the meantime, he underlined that the offered tourist product of Greece has become more expensive, the Development Consultant of DANAOS TRAVEL explained, who represents about 30 tour operators abroad. "Rightly because many businesses have invested too much money upgrading their hospitality services and unfairly because many businessmen have raised prices, without having made any investment simply taking advantage of the "drive" of foreign travelers to travel after Covid which now does not exist.
Looking to the future, Vamiedakis noted that Greece is a safe destination, is popular and will not have a problem with tourist arrivals. This year proves it, as the arrivals are significantly higher than last year. The correction made to the occupancy of the hotels this year has another explanation and among other things is due to the infrastructure of the airports in Heraklion and Santorini, which cannot offer more Slots to airlines this year, while there is demand from abroad. This, combined with the addition of new beds to the offered portfolio, has had the effect of slightly lower hotel occupancy rates in these destinations, he explained.
