The Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) is warning of possible long-term impacts on the competitiveness of the Greek tourism product as a result of the increase in hotel accommodation fees and other charges thanks to a bill by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance.
At the same time, it calls for ensuring the investment of these takings in infrastructure and other projects related to tourism, and also for tourism not to be the only sector that finances the natural disaster response fund.
In particular, it considers the climate crisis resilience fee for hotel customers, which came into effect at the beginning of 2024 and is now increasing further, to be a purely revenue-generating fiscal measure. Furthermore, it speaks of the absence of any account of the revenue already collected and of the return on projects and actions that were channeled.
“The financing of the national public investment program for the natural disaster program cannot be the responsibility of only one sector of the Greek economy, and the ever-increasing burden on tourism accommodation enterprises – it is noted that the possibility of increasing the accommodation fee for temporary residents by up to 50% was recently provided for – is harming the competitiveness of Greek tourism,” SETE states.
The tourism confederation also estimates that the new increase in the fee will have the opposite effect of that intended, negatively affecting both tourism accommodation businesses and public revenue in the long term.
Regarding the fees imposed on cruise passengers disembarking at ports throughout the country, which are increased for Mykonos and Santorini, the confederation states that “the imposition of fees that is not accompanied by the necessary operational interventions at the ports and the operation of the destinations is not an effective measure,” while “any amounts collected should be channeled into upgrading the infrastructure and operation of the destinations at a regional and local level.”
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