Athens Mayor Calls on Hotels to ‘Contribute’ Portion of Earnings to City

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas speaking at the Delphi Economic Forum (DEF).

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas said hotel enterprises operating in the Greek capital should share a portion of their revenues with the city to meet the increasing costs, during his participation in the 9th edition of the Delphi Economic Forum (DEF) held in Delphi through to April 13.

Addressing the forum, Doukas said that while the Municipality of Athens was becoming “poorer”, hotel revenues had increased by 23 percent in 2023 to 11 billion euros.

He went on to add that the increase in tourism to Athens despite its positive effects also had an impact leading to oversaturation in many neighborhoods and more needs.

“We have to keep the city clean. Under regular circumstances, this concerns some 700,000 residents but cleaning for 7 million people after tourism to the city has tripled is whole different matter,” he said, adding that you can’t use the same resources for triple the population. “This requires new tools, new ways and structures otherwise the residents themselves will have a problem.”

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas at the Delphi Economic Forum (DEF).

Doukas also argued that the newly announced climate resilience levy, revenues from which will go into a specially created emergency fund for natural disasters, will not be directed to the city.

Referring to the traffic problem in the center of Athens, Doukas proposed the introduction of tolls, increasing public transport services, and the closing off of major roads on weekends and opening these for pedestrians.

To support the municipality, Doukas proposed a municipal duty (known in Greek as “τέλος διαμονής παρεπιδημούντων”) be increased from 0.5 percent to 2 percent. The municipal duty is a levy paid by hotels to the municipality.

 “Those who earn very large revenues utilizing the city’s infrastructure, must return something to the city. The needs are different in each city, it is up to each municipality to determine the percentage of this return, even the hotels want this,” he concluded.