Attica Hotel Association Says Tourism Traffic in Athens is Stagnant

The Attica Hotel Association recently announced the statistics on hotel occupancy for November 2007, and claims “tourism traffic during the holiday period showed neither positive nor encouraging results and remains stagnant.”

GBR Consulting collected the results -business consultants specialized in strategy, marketing, organization and finance in various industries such as tourism- on behalf of the association. The results indicate that occupancy in Athens hotels in November showed an increase in four-star and three-star hotels at 3.6 percent and 2.1 percent respectively. Five-star and two-star hotels showed a decrease in occupancy of 1.6 and 4.6 percent respectively.

According to the association, “Greece has yet to send the message: Holidays, entertainment and shopping in the Greek capital, so as to attract more visitors and it has lacked significantly in comparison to other European capitals during the same period.”

The European “Benchmark” for October 2008 also indicates that increase in occupancy and in average rate per room, at 4.1 percent and 5.0 percent respectively, fail to place Athens in a competitive position in comparison to other European capitals.

According to the association, Athens in the post-Olympic era is no longer in the last position with regard to occupancy, insofar as average rate per room is concerned, now at 118,42 euros. However it remains at one before last, after Berlin, and still some 50 percent lower than the average European rate that in October showed an average rate per room of 178,90 euros.

The association claims, “The Athens product remains stagnant and it is clear that it requires enrichment in proposals to visitors and active promotion that would enhance the image of Athens not only in Europe but worldwide.”

Athens Hotel Occupancy (%)

(The results are based on occupancy in Athens hotels per visitor not per room)