Fire of hoteliers against X. Doukas (mayor of Athens) for plans to increase fees

The members of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers expressed their reaction to the overtaxation of the hotel industry from the floor of today’s annual regular general assembly, with the president of POX Yiannis Hatzis stressing that amid the fierce international competition, the priority should be to strengthen competitiveness and not its weakening.

“Today, the commitment to reduce the VAT on accommodation should have been implemented. And instead, we found ourselves paying the durability fee”, underlined Mr. Hatzis, referring to the latest tax that hotel accommodations have been asked to pay. “There are not a few times when we have the feeling that we are being punished because we succeed,” noted Mr. Hatzis.

After pointing out that short-term leases remain unchecked, as any arrangements are of a soft collection nature, he only underlined that the hotel industry is actively increasing jobs to 210,000 (2022 – 2023 +13%). At the same time, it was underlined that this year the collective labor agreements give an additional 5% for the employees from 1.1.2024, which comes to be added to last year’s salary increases for hotel employees.

In any case, Mr. Hatzis asked for the armoring of the Greek hotel, so that it can continue to increase profits in the economy and in society. At this point, he stood up to the voices that speak of hyper-tourism in Greece, speaking of an invention behind which are hidden both the great lack of infrastructure and the declining performance of those that exist. “But it is against common sense to talk about limiting demand instead of upgrading supply, so that destinations are able to properly manage their daily lives,” noted Mr. Hatzis.

Remaining in the field of hotel taxation, the reaction of the hoteliers to the thoughts of the mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, to give the Municipality a percentage of the turnover of the hotels for the needs of the city, with the former president of SETE Yiannis Retsos, was strong. to wonder: “How did the previous mayor of Athens clean the city with the same money and now it is not enough? What is changing this year?”. Along the same lines, Mr. Hatzis also mentioned that policies that take into account without the hotelier, from the facts, can neither be productive for tourism, nor useful for the course of the country.

In his intervention, Konstantinos Zikos, the vice-president of EOT, pointed out that the Ministry of Tourism’s bill will soon become law of the state, which will resolve issues related to the competitiveness of the sector. For his part, Myronas Flouris, Secretary General of Tourism Policy and Development, at the Ministry of Tourism, after pointing out that this year will be another good year for Greece, reiterated the ministry’s targeting of quality tourism and not the numbers of arrivals. In her intervention, Christina Kefalogianni, deputy regional governor of Attica, noted that the new administration of the region is redesigning the Brand Name of the Attica region, with the aim of making it a 12-month destination.

Finally, the vice-president of SETE, Agapi Sbokou, underlined that the overtaxation of tourism is the easy solution for burdens that do not belong to it and emphasized its contribution to public finances. As he said, its contribution in 2023 was 28.5 billion euros or 13% of GDP with multipliers pushing it to 30%, he explained. At the same time, he pointed out that 1/3 of the total jobs come from tourism.