Tourism’s eight open fronts
SETE president outlines the challenges Greece’s heavy industry faces after its record year
“We shouldn’t be complacent,” notes the president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Yiannis Paraschis, a few weeks before the end of of 2023, the new reference year for the sector, as records are being recorded both in arrivals as well as receipts. Based on the data of the Bank of Greece, for the nine months the revenues have increased by 15% compared to 2022 and by 11% compared to 2019.
However, “the challenges are many and must be addressed,” underlined the head of SETE, speaking in the context of the 11th general meeting of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, recalling the increased operational burden from inflation, labor costs, expensive energy, the difficulty of access to bank lending for SMEs, high interest rates and taxation.
Above all, however, he set eight immediate priorities for Greek tourism with which the state should mainly deal. First, he emphasized that the proposed legislative framework for the regulation of short-term rentals needs improvements, on the one hand to ensure a level playing field for business activity, and on the other hand because finding housing in some areas is a major social issue.
Second, he emphasized that the “resilience fee” to address the climate crisis cannot be borne by just one industry, and other criteria must be taken into account.
Thirdly, he called for the permanence of the reduced VAT rate on the tourism package and on transport.
Fourth, he proposed the need to expand financing programs for the energy upgrade and modernization of all hotel units.
Fifth, he described the improvement of public infrastructure as a structural issue of immediate priority. Sixth, he called for the support measures taken for areas affected by natural disasters and extreme weather events to be horizontal and include all tourism businesses.
Seventh, he stressed the land usage issue has not been resolved for a number of years, while an additional post-pandemic problem that needs quick solutions is the inability to find staff.
