Hotel turnover set to drop by a fifth
Greek hotels will see their turnover decline by about 1.4 billion euros this year due to the global financial crisis, according to the estimates of the head of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers (POX). Addressing a conference on Rhodes focusing on «Hotel Marketing in the Modern Market,» Andreas Andreadis said this loss amounts to a yearly drop of 20 percent in hotel turnover that is estimated at 7 billion euros per year. He added that losses could be considered to stand at 1.1 billion euros when taking into account the 300 million euros provided by the state in support of the tourism and hotel industry. Andreadis suggested that part of the turnover loss is covered by the reduction of operating expenses, but there are many hotels that are unable to service their debts for 2009 and 2010 that reach 500 million euros on an annual basis. POX, in association with the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE), will ask for new state-guaranteed loans to lighten that load for hotel enterprises. At another conference held yesterday in Hania, Crete, Tourism Development Minister Costas Markopoulos announced that by the end of the year the electronic register of all tourism enterprises in Greece will be ready to be presented. He added that Greece’s portal is in trial mode but it will become the permanent Internet gateway for the country’s tourism industry.
