A paradox has been recorded in 2019 in regard to Greece’s tourism sector.
While the country experiences one of the best periods in its history in terms of number of visitors, its hotels have been suffering from lower earnings, due to the rapid growth of online renting platforms, such as the famous Airbnb.
While 2019 was a record-breaking year for Athens’ international airport, with more than 25.5 million people arriving in the Greek capital, hotels in Attica saw a slight decline in their revenues.
More specifically, in 2019 Athenian hotels recorded a decline of 2.2 percent in occupancy and a 1.4 percent decrease in revenue per room available.
These figures were recently published by the Athens – Attica & Argosaronikos Hoteliers Association.
This has happened not only due to the massive and rapid expansion of online platforms, where ordinary people can rent their properties to tourists but also due to the fact that the Greek capital has now more hotels than a few years earlier.
As for the Airbnb alone, in 2019 more than 91,000 properties were enlisted in this popular platform, a figure 25 percent higher compared to 2018.
If one takes into account another popular online platform, the HomeAway, then a stunning 170,542 accommodations were offered online across Greece.
It remains to be seen where this tectonic change in Greece’s and the world’s tourism industry will lead.
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