Hotel Chamber Seeks Greek Prime Minister’s Intervention Over Possible Tax Hikes

The Hellenic Chamber of Hotels on Friday sought Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ intervention to prevent tax hikes to tourism enterprises in Greece.

In a letter to the Greek PM, the chamber said that if enterprises are burdened with more taxes, devastating effects on tourism and the national economy should be expected.

According to data of the Research Institute for Tourism (ITEP), which is included in the chamber’s letter, if a new tax is charged on hospitality and other tourism services on islands and if the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate increases, then this year’s tourism season — as well as the overall competitiveness of Greek tourism — will be directly undermined.

“Since the price of Greece’s tourism product is inflexible in relation to the globalized tourism environment, any increase of its final price will directly and adversely affect the country’s tourism demand”, the chamber underlined in the letter.

The chamber added that further tax burdens would endanger the sustainability of Greek tourism enterprises, leading a large number of them to close down.