Greece’s Small Accommodation Facilities Face Liquidity Troubles

Impacted by the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, occupancy levels at Greece’s small accommodation facilities this year stood at only 25 percent, which in turn led to reduced revenue, according to the Greek Confederation of Tourist Accommodation Enterprises (SETKE).

In statement issued this week, SETKE said this year’s “lost” tourism season had come to an end for some earlier than usual, stressing that hospitality enterprises are now faced with liquidity troubles “since for both the guarantee program and the entrepreneurship fund, banks have been delaying the disbursement of money for months” while operational costs pile up.

As a result of the insecurity and uncertainty, SETKE said, businesses are now at risk of closure.

“Lacking liquidity and faced with a series of problems, the return to a certain normalcy for small tourist accommodation businesses seems to be a distant dream,” SETKE concludes.

In its statement, SETKE cited Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data according to which turnover in August 2020 for accommodation enterprises (with double-entry bookkeeping) came to 540,422,134 euros, down by 58.5 percent from 1,301,839,600 euros in August 2019.