By L. Karageorgos
August 2016 is shaping up to be windfall for the all-important tourism sector in recession-plagued Greece, with most traditional holiday destinations reporting full occupancy, while other less-known destinations are also recording increased arrivals.
Several hotel representatives contacted by “N” over the past week mostly confirmed estimates by the leadership of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), namely, that August is significantly improved from July 2016, whereas September 2016 also records high reservation rates.
“July was not particularly good, but August (2016) more than compensated,” Dimitris Pollalis, the president of the hoteliers association of Laconia prefecture, in the extreme south of mainland Greece, told “N” this week.
“Not a single room remained unoccupied; occupancy is very high, a large number of visitors are in the area, and demand appears high for September as well,” he added.
Conversely, he pointed to reduced spending, per capita, by both Greek and foreign tourists.
In another market that usually attracts all types of tourists, the large island of Evia, which straddles the eastern coast of mainland Greece, the president of the hoteliers’ association, Miltiades Helmis, also said occupancy is up from 2015.
He nevertheless clarified that this “improvement” is not due to both an increase in arrivals, but to the fact that there are 3,000 less rooms available this year. The reason, he said, is that a handful of hotels and resorts did not open for the 2016 season.
