Attica Hotels Post Increases

Attica hotel occupancy in 2006 increased 9.8 percent against the year before. Room prices were up 2.6 percent and revenue per room increased by 12.6 percent, according to Giorgos Tsakiris, president of the Attica Hoteliers’ Association, and Ioannis Retsos, the association’s secretary general.

They were quick to add, however, that even though the level of service at Athens-Attica area hotels is one of the best in the whole of Europe, hotels in the capital continue to post the lowest revenue when compared with their 10 main competitors in European city destinations. Revenue is down 10% against Berlin hotels and 120% against hotels in Rome, which posted the highest room revenue of all European hotels in 2006.

Concerning increasing the flow of traffic to Athens, Mr. Tsakiris said that we have to work harder on promoting Athens as a city break destination. He added that local government leaders must begin to confront tourism not as a problem but rather as an opportunity to increase revenue. In the Attica region alone, he said, just one tourism-related tax brought in revenue of 15 million euros.