“What the hoteliers say to each other”: Which coffers will be filled in the summer – 2024-05-04 09:23:34

Greek tourism is headed for a new revenue record in 2024 with a number of business sectors expecting a strong injection in their income and financial results as they are directly or indirectly linked to tourism activity.

According to the estimates of leading players in Greek tourism in 2024, a new significant increase in tourist receipts will be recorded both due to the increase in arrivals as the messages are particularly encouraging for almost all the country’s destinations but also due to the increase in accommodation prices.

Another feature of this year’s summer season that is beginning to be recorded, as hoteliers say among themselves, is the further spread of tourist traffic to “land” destinations as the islands are fully booked for the summer season. This concerns not only hotels but also short-term rental accommodation which reaps a very large part of the demand.

Hotels first and Airbnb-style accommodation are the main gainers from the rise in receipts. Of course, the occupancy rates of the hotels in the high season are not expected to move much higher than last year given the already high percentages of the previous year.

The fullnesses
It is noted that the average occupancy of hotels fluctuated in August 2023 at 89% compared to 88% in August 2022, according to the Institute of Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP), however due to the increase in the average price (7.9% increase in contract prices compared to 2023) are expected to register a new significant increase in turnover from 10,563.8 million euros in 2023 (22.5% increase compared to 2022).

Business sectors such as hotels, rooms for rent, and short-term rental accommodation are the first to directly benefit from the trend of people traveling more and more.

Catering is the next industry to benefit from tourism, while office rentals, travel agencies, trade, air and sea transport are among the beneficiaries of tourism.

For example, in the car rental sector, the estimates of two companies listed on the Greek stock exchange, Autohellas and Motodynamics, are indicative. In fact, as the management of Autohellas states in its annual financial report, the revenues “in the part of tourist rentals, we expect to be affected by the positive indications we have from all sectors of tourism and also by the expansion of the tourist season”.

Motodynamics also states that it expects for 2024 “significant growth and an increase in its economic size” as, among other things, “Our forecasts for incoming visitors to our country are positive and our company’s planning is for a still very strong tourism season”.

In its annual report on the contribution of tourism to the Greek economy, INSETE outlines the business sectors that benefit from the wave of foreign arrivals in our country.

In particular, accommodation accounts for 45.3% of tourism revenue, catering for 18% for Sea Transport, 9% for road transport, 7.1% for air transport, 5.4% for trade, 4.9% for entertainment, 3.8% in Travel Agencies 3.7% in Car rental 1.8% and in conferences 1%.

INSETE underlines that tourism activity depends on and affects many sectors of the economy, such as transport (e.g. travel by plane and bus transfer), accommodation (in a hotel or elsewhere), catering (in restaurants or bars in or outside accommodation), entertainment (including sightseeing) and shopping. Thus, tourism is an activity that concerns many and various parts of the social and productive fabric of a country.

At 13% of GDP
At the same time, due to the large dispersion of tourist destinations throughout the country, tourism plays a catalytic role in the formation of income in many Regions of the country. In this context, INSETE refers to IOBE, which points out its studies that every 1 euro generated by tourism activity creates an indirect and induced additional economic activity of 1.2 euro and thus, in total, generates 2.2 GDP. That is, the tourist activity multiplier amounts to 2.2.

According to a study by KEPE (2014), the resulting multiplier of tourism for the Greek tourism economy amounts to 2.65 which means that for every 1.0 euro from tourism activity, an indirect and induced additional economic activity of 1.65 euro is created and so, overall, the GDP increases by 2.65 euros. Therefore, the tourism activity multiplier ranges between 2.2 and 2.65.

It is recalled that in 2023 receipts from inbound tourism including cruise revenue amounted to €20.7 billion, increased by +13.8% compared to 2019 (€18.2 billion) and by +17.0% compared to 2022 (€17.7 billion), while arrivals including cruises reached 36.1 million in 2023, increased by +6.1% compared to 2019 (34.0 million) and by + 20.8% compared to 2022 (29.9 million). Finally, the direct impact of tourism on the Greek economy in 2023 – at current prices – was €28.5 billion, an amount corresponding to 13% of the country’s GDP.

Source OT

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had ordered more weapons to be delivered faster for Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

Russia, which describes its war in Ukraine as a special military operation, now controls just under a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and seized the bulk of that territory during the first months of the war it launched in February 2022.

The ministry said via the Telegram application that Chief of the Army General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the operation, handed Shoigu a report. This came during a meeting with the Supreme Military Command of the war in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry quoted Shoigu as saying in a statement posted on Telegram, “To maintain the required pace of the attack… it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment provided to the forces, especially weapons.”

Russian forces have made almost daily tactical progress in the past few weeks on the front line in southeastern Ukraine, which Kiev attributed to its lack of weapons.

Russia took control of about 6 villages in the Donetsk region, while strengthening its field positions in the Kharkiv region.

Ukrainian army chief Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi warned on Sunday that Ukraine could lose more territory if the West does not quickly hand over weapons.

On Sunday, he also announced the withdrawal of his forces from villages near Avdiivka, a city in the east of the country that Russia captured earlier this year.