Up to 65 Percent of Greek Hotels Face Bankruptcy, New Report Warns

Up to 65 percent of Greek hotels face bankruptcy due to the coronavirus lockdown, a study by the influential Hellenic Chamber of Hotels warned on Monday.
In a teleconference, Alexandros Vasilikos, the president of the Chamber, said that “it will take a long time for the Greek tourist industry to return to the levels of 2019,” a year in which record numbers of tourists visited the country.
According to the study, 65 percent of hoteliers say that the bankruptcy of their business is either “likely” or “most likely” — at 46.6 and 18.3 percent respectively.
At the same, time the vast majority of hoteliers –95 percent — envisage a huge drop in receipts which averages 56.3 percent.
It is estimated that the hotel sector in Greece will lose a total of 4.46 billion euros in 2020.
In an interview with Greek Reporter last week, Grigoris Tasios, President of the Greek Hoteliers Association, predicted that the Greek tourist industry is facing an unprecedented crisis in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and is set to lose at least fifty percent of its revenue in 2020.
Tasios said according to an optimistic scenario the tourist season will begin on July 1, months later than usual, knocking off almost 10 billion euros from tourist receipts this year.
On March 19, the Greek Ministry of Tourism announced that all hotels which operate on a 12-month basis will be forced to shut down until April 30, 2020.
The decision, however, made provisions that every capital in Greece’s regional units will still have to have one open hotel, while three hotels will remain open in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki.