Industry Reports & Trends

For the first five months of this year, overnight stays in the Athens region dropped by 16% when compared with the same period last year, according to the latest statistics released by the Attica Hoteliers’ Association. The greatest loss in stays occurred at the capital’s luxury units, but the association believes that next year’s Games, along with the implementation of the Attica Prefecture’s advertising and promotion program, and the completion of the many tourism-related infrastructure works, will turn the tide before the end of the year.

Next year’s Olympic Games are expected to not only increase Greece’s gross domestic product by as much as 1.4% but also continue to so after the Games are over. The big winner in the economy, however, is the tourism sector, according to a study released during the recent Journalists’ Convention held on Samothraki.

It’s not only local cruise companies — for the first half of this year cruise passengers on Greek vessels are down some 30% over the same period last year — that face difficulties this year.

According to recent press reports, the Albanian government has launched a radical drive to attract a thriving international tourist trade by bulldozing hundreds of kiosks, shops and hotels along the best sandy beaches in the country. All the buildings were illegally erected and are without proper water and sewage facilities. In their place, new plots are being marked out and the first up-market holiday estates are being built. In Tirana, the capital, a new five-star hotel with mid-range room rates is opening.

Athens ranks as the 71st most expensive city worldwide, according to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s first cost of living survey for 2003, against a placing of 111th last year. Using New York as a base measure of 100, the semi-annual survey, which covers 144 cities, compares the cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, food, clothing, household goods, transport and entertainment.

A Carlson Wagonlit Travel study showed that potential cost savings on low-cost carriers (LCCs) for large multinationals are, in at least half the cases, just 10% off normal costs. Carlson said effective marketing of low price offers by these carriers often leads multinationals to overestimate the potential impact of LCCs on the total air travel budget.

The impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak on many tourism destinations is already greater than last year’s terrorist attack on Bali, while airlines have been hit harder than they were by the war in Iraq, says World Tourism Organization Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli.

Athens International Airport is the new leader in the world in its category, according to the annual results of International Air Transport Association’s independent survey “Global Airport Monitor” for 2002.

The tourism sector had best hope for a barrage of last-minute bookings if Greece’s consumers’ federation is correct in its forecasts. Four out of every 10 Greeks will not take summer holidays this year, mainly to save money, while most of those who do go away will stay in their summer homes or with friends, according to a survey made public last month by two large consumer groups.

Greece’s public sector tourism leaders continue their attempts to support tourism sector moral in the face of what appears to be a very difficult year for the sector.