Athens Mayor Wants Municipality to Receive Earnings from Climate Resilience Levy

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas.

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas is calling for an increase in a levy paid by accommodation providers that will support the municipality in view of a rising number of arrivals to the Greek capital.

In an editorial in Kathimerini, Doukas called for the return of the municipal duty charged on hoteliers and short-term rental owners (known in Greek as “τέλος διαμονής παρεπιδημούντων”) to 2 percent as initially endorsed in parliament from the current 0.5 percent decided during the debt crisis.

Currently, he said, a mere 0.42 cents per tourist goes to the municipality.

Mayor wants Climate Resilience Levy earnings to go to the municipality

The mayor also proposed that a newly announced climate resilience levy, revenues from which will go into a specially created emergency fund for natural disasters, be channeled into local government and not central government in order to help municipalities increase their revenues and in turn support works and services. The climate resilience levy is charged on hotels and short-term rentals.

Athens, Greece.

“The only income that the Athens Municipality collected from tourist activity in the city in 2023 – one of the best tourist years – came to 2,714,664 euros,” said Doukas, “down by 50 percent from 5,183,640 euros in city revenues in 2007, 17 years ago”.

In the last decade, said Doukas, the number of hotels operating in Athens increased by 26 percent, rooms by 21 percent, and short-term rentals by 475 percent. In 2023, the number of tourist arrivals reached 6.5-7 million and lastly, Athens is becoming a year-round destination.

At the same time, with 0.42 cents per tourist and with limited revenues, the municipality must meet the increasing demand in services and infrastructure which is leading to severe problems for the city and impacting the tourist product.

“This tourism development is finding the municipality understaffed and under-resourced,” he said.