Greek Banks ‘Warm Up’ to the Tourism Sector

The positive prospects for Greek tourism in 2017, the funding of the sector’s businesses, the effective management of non-performing loans (NPLs) and the need to attract domestic and foreign investments were discussed on Wednesday during a working lunch attended by representatives of the Hellenic Banking Association and the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

Both sides agreed that Greece has significant potential and that through joint efforts of the state, sector bodies and banks, the country’s economy could see growth by attracting significant foreign capital, especially if uncertainties and risks are limited following the successful completion of the second evaluation, the increase of private and public investment within an attractive framework for entrepreneurship by streamlining tax rates and charges, removing restrictions on capital movements and reinforcing healthy competition.

Non-performing loans in Greek tourism: 3.6 billion euros

Non-performing loans (NPLs) in Greek tourism currently add up to 3.6 billion euros, the outgoing president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Andreas Andreadis, said on Thursday.

Outgoing president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Andreas Andreadis, speaking to the Greek media.

Speaking to the Greek media a few weeks before the end of his mandate, Andreadis said that already 600 million euros from the bad loans have already been rescheduled by Greek banks. According to Andreadis, out of the remaining three billion euros, it is estimated that some one billion euros is owed to banks by five major hotel enterprises and the remaining two billion euros correspond to a number of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises. He added that banks need to proceed to resolve the debts of the five hotel enterprises in order to proceed towards a regulatory framework to reschedule the remaining bad loans.

“The tourism sector is not so over-indebted taking under consideration its 13 billion euros revenue and prospects for the domestic economy”, Andreadis said.

The issue of non-performing loans in tourism is expected to be discussed during SETE’s upcoming general assembly on April 18th.