The conferences filled the hotels of Athens last September, with the occupancies to touch the impressive 94% and be marginally above last year. In fact, the rooms were sold more expensively than major competitor cities such as Madridthe Vienna and the Constantinople.
The average room price, however, moved even more dynamically and recorded an increase of 19% compared to the same month of 2019, while the revenue per available room was even higher, recording an increase of 19.9%.
THE Athens Attica Hotel Association released the information it is processing in collaboration with her GBR Consulting and which show that this year’s September closed with an average occupancy of 93.7%, i.e. the average occupancy moved to the levels of September 2022 (+0.7%). In a statement, EXA emphasizes that the good performance in September is largely due to a significant number of international conferences held in Athens, which highlights the importance of the sector and how important it is to “invest” in Conference Tourism.
The average occupancy at 9 months was also very high January – September 2023 in the hotels of Athens, which amounted to 78%. Compared to the same period last year, occupancies increased by 14% compared to the corresponding period of 2022.
Historical highs for the average room rate above Madrid and Vienna
The average room rate (ADR) for Athens hotels in the month of September reached 171.35 eurosagainst the 143.94 euros in September 2022 marking an increase of 19%. It is worth noting that the increase compared to the average price of 2019 is 38.6%.
Athens in September managed to pass in average room price, main competitor cities. Noting a better average price of €171.35, it beat Madrid (€161.32) and Istanbul (€151.43), Berlin (€149.41) and Vienna (€152.18).
Other cities recorded an impressive average price that reaches or exceeds 300 euros.
At the 9-month level, Athens’ average room price did not exceed €142.19 and the revenue per available room €110.91, while Athens’ competitors almost all recorded a better 9-month average price such as Barcelona’s €175.58 ), Istanbul is 148.11 euros.
Significant increase in revenue per room
The data of EXAA, show that the development for “revenue per available room» (RevPar) in September it was 160.48 eurosincreased by 19.9% compared to the same month of ’19 and by 37% compared to September 2019.
In a statement, the Athens-Attica Hotel Association points out: “We remind you that the average occupancy and price data that we continuously monitor every month and for a number of years for Athens and competitors, now consistently lead to two well-known, but important, conclusions: On the one hand, the The ‘gap’ between visitor arrivals in Athens and hotel arrivals has remained ‘open’ for years mainly due to the (pro) offer of accommodation outside hotels, legal and illegal, sometimes cheap and sometimes very expensive in price, to which a large portion of visitors are obviously directed. And on the other hand, the prices of Athenian hotels – in these conditions – are unable to ‘unfold’ to the extent that they could, despite the excellent level of the upgraded hotel units and chains, despite the new significant investments, despite the high quality of services provided to the customer and despite the dynamics of demand for the Greek capital.
The organized State and with it the Local Self-Government, must now guard the touristic identity and quality that the destination has painstakingly acquired, as well as the special relationship between Athens and its visitors – at every level. At the same time, it would be appropriate to raise the bar of our expectations and demands from our city in matters of quality of life and safety of citizens and visitors, cleanliness, sustainability, infrastructure, etc. as we are experiencing times of significant geopolitical, economic and also climatic changes and rearrangements”.
