Industry Reports & Trends

This year fewer incidents occurred that concerned British tourists in Greece who needed assistance from the consular or Greek authorities, according to the results of an annual report of the British Department for British tourists traveling abroad.

Greek resort hotels showed an excellent performance during the second quarter this year with an increase of 12.4 percent in revenue per available room compared to the corresponding quarter of 2010 and resulted to a year-to-date of 11.2 percent, recent figures released by GBR Consulting said.

Greek hoteliers consider the tourism residential accommodation a necessary measure but under certain conditions, according to a survey carried out recently by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels.

The increase of the VAT for restaurant services in Greek hotels from 13 to 23 percent (a 77 percent hike) would reduce the competitiveness of the country’s tourism product, the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels said recently in an announcement.

Domestic tourism is expected to show a reduction of some 20 percent this year as the economic crisis is keeping Greeks home, according to recent estimations of Greek tourism professionals.

Prior to the three-week taxi strike, Greece saw an increase in international arrivals by 9.95 percent compared to last year, according to data compiled by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) from 13 of Greece’s major airports for the January-July 2011 period.

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos last month expressed optimism in regards to the number of arrivals from Greece’s new target markets: Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey.

While the Greek capital counted losses last month in bookings and revenue due to violent protests at Syntagma Square in late June that resulted to some 20,000 cancelations in 21 central hotels in Athens, tourism traffic for the rest of Greece showed positive signs.

The average hotel occupancy in Athens-Attica increased by 4.5 percent in April compared to the same month in 2010 following a negative streak in bookings that lasted several months, the Athens-Attica Hotel Association outlined last month in an announcement.

Although Greek tourism professionals were optimistic in regards to this year’s season, especially after its impressive opening in April as international arrivals that month reached the rate of 24.04 percent, their initial expectations seem to be falling short in regards to arrivals for the whole year.