Athens hotels reeling from drop in bookings
The Athens hotel industry has been in free fall since last December, while prospects for 2010 look to be moderate to negative, said the president of the Athens Hoteliers’ Association, Ioannis Retsos, during the group’s annual general meeting yesterday, within the context of the 41st Xenia exhibition at the Metropolitan Expo center in Athens. The first 10 months of 2009 have seen revenues for five-star hotels in the capital shrink by 21.6 percent, those of four-star hotels by 18.9 percent and those of three-star hotels 12.1 percent compared with the same period in 2008. ‘For the time remaining until the end of the year, we cannot expect this to change and all that matters now is to see whether revenues will drop below the 20 percent level,’ Retsos said.
