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Greece has mentioned it can crack down on short-term vacation leases and cruise ship site visitors as a part of a set of measures to curb extreme tourism within the Mediterranean nation.
However trade leaders warned the restrictions might hurt an important financial sector at a time when Greece is on monitor to report a document variety of guests for the yr.
“Tourism helps the economic system with sources and jobs, however it should additionally pay its particular share of social returns,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis mentioned in asserting the measures late on Saturday at a commerce honest in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-biggest metropolis.
Considerations have grown in Mediterranean nations resembling Spain, Italy and Greece concerning the injury to native communities and the setting attributable to surging customer numbers and lightweight regulation.
However tourism minister Olga Kefalogianni advised the Monetary Occasions: “There isn’t a overtourism in Greece. What we’re seeing is overconcentration in particular areas throughout peak durations.”
Kefalogianni mentioned the nation should now look to stability tourism-fuelled development whereas defending its cultural and pure heritage and making certain native wellbeing.
Economists estimate that tourism contributes greater than 25 per cent to Greek gross home product, and Mitsotakis insisted it might proceed to play a driving function within the nation’s economic system.
“It is extremely harmful to current Greece as a spot that’s not welcoming to vacationers,” he mentioned on Sunday.
Mitsotakis introduced the introduction of a price of as much as €20 for cruise ship passengers to the preferred islands resembling Santorini and Mykonos. Through the summer time months a number of ships, some carrying 1000’s of tourists, dock every single day at the preferred locations.
George Koubenas, chair of Greece’s Union of Cruise Ship Homeowners, mentioned the transfer unfairly focused cruise ship passengers. “Cruise guests don’t use native infrastructure like water and electrical energy to the identical extent as different vacationers,” Koubenas mentioned, suggesting {that a} flat price for all vacationers, like that levied in Italian cities resembling Venice, can be fairer.
Koubenas urged that native communities ought to set clear limits on arrivals, with a well-defined allocation system for cruise ships to handle flows at small island ports.
Following comparable limits imposed in Spain, Greece can also be taking steps to control short-term leases through on-line platforms resembling Airbnb. Mitsotakis introduced a one-year ban on new short-term leases in three areas of Athens. Vacationers usually begin or end their vacation within the historic Greek capital earlier than transferring on to an island vacation spot.
Andreas Chiou, president of the Greek Property Managers Affiliation, mentioned the ban was pushed by stress from lodge house owners who considered short-term leases as a aggressive risk. “There isn’t a oversaturation of the market as a consequence of short-term leases,” he mentioned.
He additionally criticised one other new measure incentivising property house owners to change to long-term leases that features a three-year exemption.
“How can property house owners, who renovated their houses for short-term leases, make a revenue on long-term leases?” Chiou requested, warning that house owners might cease utilizing official platforms to advertise their properties, as has occurred in cities resembling New York.
A report by Grant Thornton for Greece’s Chamber of Lodges confirmed vacation leases elevated 28 per cent between 2019 and 2023, with obtainable properties doubling in that interval. Resort mattress availability, in contrast, elevated simply 3.5 per cent. Chiou mentioned short-term leases accounted for under 2 per cent of the general rental market in Athens, citing his personal affiliation’s information.
Mitsotakis additionally introduced {that a} local weather disaster tax can be levied on lodge stays and short-term leases from April to October, with revenues directed in direction of bettering infrastructure in vacationer areas.
“A good portion of the income will return to native communities, permitting them to higher put together for the burden they face every summer time,” Mitsotakis mentioned.
Italy not too long ago proposed rising vacationer taxes to advertise accountable journey. Its new proposals might see vacationers pay a price of as much as €25 an evening for luxurious lodging.
Yiannis Paraschis, president of the Greek Tourism Confederation, mentioned imposing charges might make Greece much less aggressive as its tourism trade continues to be recovering from the financial disaster a decade in the past and the coronavirus pandemic.
“We should be extra cautious than our Mediterranean rivals,” Paraschis warned. “In Greece, tourism is significant to our economic system in a method it isn’t for different nations.”
In 2023, the nation welcomed a document 36.1mn guests, and within the first half of 2024, vacationer arrivals surged by 16 per cent to 11.6mn, in keeping with the Financial institution of Greece, placing it heading in the right direction for a document variety of guests this yr.
