Hotels would get a big boost if their VAT rate was reduced

For hotel industry enterprises to create more jobs and implement investments that will improve the quality of service, they need a more favorable tax policy, Alpha Bank argues in its weekly financial bulletin.

The lender's economists explain that the imposition of a higher value-added tax on hotels since 2015 (when the rate rose from 6 to 13 percent) in most of the country (excluding Leros, Lesvos, Kos, Samos and Chios which have been granted special VAT status) has damaged the sector's competitiveness, although hotel enterprises have been forced to absorb most of the hikes themselves to compete with prices in Greece's rival destinations.

Alpha's analysts stress that lightening the tax load on hotel enterprises would also give them a better chance of wooing visitors considering a short-term residential rental instead, as offered through online platforms such as Airbnb...

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