After the second 15 days of May the opening of most hotels in Greece

With the gaze turned to the second fortnight of May are the hoteliers, a period during which the operation of most hotels in Greece will gradually begin. The festive days of Easter gave smaller and bigger “breaths” in the market depending on the destination, something that does not seem to happen on the three days of May Day, mainly due to the time proximity to the previous festive three days.

“At the moment, on average, a percentage of 30% of hotels are open throughout Greece,” said Grigoris Tassios, president of the Panhellenic Hoteliers’ Federation and president of the Halkidiki Hoteliers Association, explaining that May has always been a more sluggish month, but “This year the phenomenon is more intense and this is logical due to the problems that exist, such as the war, the energy crisis, etc.”

Mykonos and Santorini are among the top Easter destinations, where hotels have been open for a month now, according to Mr. Tassios. “Corfu, Arachova, the prefecture of Ioannina, the islands of the Saronic Gulf, Skiathos and some areas of the Peloponnese were quite busy. In Crete, and specifically in Rethymno and Chania, the same did not happen while Heraklion did better. And in Rhodes. “Also, about half of the hotels have opened,” he notes.

In northern Greece, the rates of tourist traffic were very low, something that does not seem to improve even in May, according to the president of POX.

“During the three days of Easter the market moved little, especially Thessaloniki and Pieria. In Halkidiki, Pieria and Thassos most hotels will open after the first 15 days of May due to low occupancy. Now it is about a third open. It is” pale ” “The beginning of the country but it is also logical for this to happen, due to the situations I mentioned above. Reservations of course exist but are made at a slow pace. The first market is England, followed by Germany, France and the Balkans,” he points out.

Regarding the latter, despite the fact that on the three days of May Day the prices are better and there is access and by road (mainly to Northern Greece) there is no similar demand, as Mr. Tassios explains.

However, “today in all of Greece the average occupancy from June to September is at 50% and this is a good element, as respectively in January 2020 before closing due to a pandemic, the average occupancy from May to October was at 65% “, stressed Mr. Tassios.

The organized travel market is in good flow

After two years without the opportunity to celebrate Easter, this year the people defied the accuracy and any problems and traveled both inside and outside Greece, as stated by the president of the Federation of Greek Travel Agencies, FedHATTA, Lysandros Tsilidis. Organized travel both at home and abroad reached about 50% of the corresponding period of 2019.

However, the three days of May Day are very close to the previous Easter holidays and so the traffic is very reduced, so that compared to 2019 it is at minus 80%. “This is normal,” Tsilidis said. their summer vacation, “he added.

“As far as Easter is concerned, people traveled to Crete, Rhodes, southern Aegean, Sporades, Volos, Cyclades, Corfu, Halkidiki, Ioannina, Tzoumerka, Zagorochoria, Peloponnese, Kavala, Xanthi. The Greeks who traveled abroad mainly the three Patriarchates, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Alexandria.These are places where Greeks choose to travel but at the same time go to church and live the rhythm of Easter.Many also traveled to Dubai, and to the other Emirates, southern Italy-Sicily, Spain, “France, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Central Europe in general. But they also traveled to more distant destinations such as New York, Cuba and Canada. And of course we are not talking about a large number, the Greek population is small and the mobility is specific.” stressed Mr. Tsilidis.

At the same time, in the period we are going through, we have a good flow in the school trips that have gradually started to return and this gives, as the president of FedHATTA points out, a good impetus to the local economy.

Source: AMPE