Survey: Greek Hoteliers See 2023 as Record-breaking Year But Have Low Future Expectations

European accommodations are on track for a record-breaking year with revenue outlook appearing the most positive in Spain and Greece, according to data released by Booking.com in partnership with Statista.

Published in the second European Accommodation Barometer, the data is the result of a survey conducted by Statista through interviews to some 1,000 executives and managers from the European travel accommodation sector which included Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland), Portugal and Spain.

According to the barometer, business sentiment among European hoteliers and holiday rental operators remains strong as occupancy levels and prices have continued their increase over the past 12 months, with almost half – 46 percent – anticipating that 2023 will be the year of highest revenue yet.

The barometer found revenue outlook to be the most positive in Spain and Greece, where two-thirds of surveyed businesses – 69 percent – expect “the highest revenue year” in the history of their establishment.

“This is no coincidence as both countries are a favorite among summer vacationers and consumers continue to splurge on leisure travel post-COVID,” it is noted in the study.

European Accommodation Barometer, Summer 2023 – Sources: Statista, Booking.com

Overall business sentiment:
Greece has low expectations for future

Sources: Statista, Booking.com

However, when looking at overall business sentiment, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands and the Nordics lead on the optimistic side with Portuguese hoteliers the most optimistic about the future. On the other hand, France and Italy have a more subdued outlook and Greece has the dimmest outlook.

The study notes that Greece has the lowest share – 34 percent – of positive future expectations while at the same time having the highest confidence (69 percent) in 2023 being a record-breaking year.

“An apparent contradiction, which might be explained by the fact that Greek businesses see emerging challenges (e.g. rising costs, price sensitivity of consumers, taxation) as more pronounced than any other country,” according to the study.

In its country insights section, the European Accommodation Barometer gives a more complete picture of the expectations of Greek accommodation sector entrepreneurs.

According to the barometer, energy costs, taxes, and difficulties accessing capital remained pain points for the Greek accommodation sector entrepreneurs, and skepticism regarding the impact of government policies remained high.

On all core metrics related to the past, present, and future, the sentiment of Greek hoteliers trailed the European average by 10, 20, and 15 percentage points respectively, showing little improvement from last year.

“However, 2023 might be the year to change that, as over two-thirds of Greek respondents (69 percent) believed that it is going to be the year that will see their highest revenue to date,” according to the study.

Overall situation for Greece

Greece experienced positive development of its occupancy rates, with 61 percent of respondents saying that occupancy rates had either increased or strongly increased over the past half year.

Despite this, just 41 percent of Greek accommodation managers rated their current overall economic situation as good or very good – a stark contrast to the European average (61 percent).

One of the key contributors to this could be financing options, as 43 percent of Greek respondents said that they found it either difficult or very difficult to access financing and capital.

“This may also explain why only 34 percent of Greek respondents believed that the economic situation of their accommodation business would develop positively to some degree in the coming 6 months,” according to the study.

Challenges

Taxation was a key challenge for Greek accommodation managers and was significantly more of a worry in Greece than in other European countries.

Greek accommodations were also almost twice as likely to rate the price sensitivity of customers and changes in consumer behavior as concerns, compared to the European average.

European Accommodation Barometer, Summer 2023 – Country Insights: Greece

Sustainability and digitalization

Although only less than half – 48 percent – indicated that their business is prepared for digital transformation, Greek respondents showed above EU-average readiness to use AI.

On sustainability and decarbonization, Greek accommodations were more or less divided. 23 percent believed that their preparedness for sustainability was poor and a similar proportion – 26 percent – believed they were well prepared, leaving around half of the respondents undecided on the topic.

European Accommodation Barometer, Summer 2023 – Sources: Statista, Booking.com

Government policies

Government policies were also less of a concern in Greece, with just over half – 54 percent – of Greek respondents stating that they were either important or very important – a figure that is lower than the European average of 64 percent.

European Accommodation Barometer, Summer 2023 – Sources: Statista, Booking.com

Nevertheless, one in three respondents – 34 percent – believed that these governmental policies were expected to have a negative impact on their business compared to just 20 percent that expected a positive impact from the government.

The survey for the European Accommodation Barometer – Summer 2023 was conducted by Statista and took place between March 28 and May 15, 2023, via telephone interviews.