Hotels report a stifling year

Greek hotels have to deal with considerable losses of 1 billion euros from deposits not paid in 2020 for 2021 due to the pandemic and from debts that have not been collected, on top of the slump in revenues last year: Hotel turnover dropped 78% in 2020 to €1.83 billion, against €8.357 billion in 2019, according to a new survey.

A report by the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP) for the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels showed that just one in five hotels that normally operate for 12 months per year managed to stay open, compared to those that remained open throughout 2019.

Out of the 3,965 year-round hotels in Greece, just 59% of them reopened after the spring lockdown (2,328 units) and almost two-thirds of those (63%) were forced to shut down before the end of 2020. Eventually, only 863 year-round hotels remained open in December, representing just 22% of...