TOURISM

Based on data, especially for popular island destinations in the country, the most likely scenario for this summer is for a drop in visitors and revenues in the sector of more than 80 percent. There is a lot of concern in the tourism sector about current conditions with most hotels preferring to stay shut in June and July.

Participating in the online discussion organized by Tsomokos Digital was George Georgakopoulos, Intrum Hellas managing director, Theodoros Kalantonis, chairman of FPS, Fotis Kourmousis, Special Secretary for Private Debt Management, Panos Paleologos, founder and president of Hotel Brain and Giannis Chatzitheodosiou, head of the Athens chamber of tradesmen.

According to the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiadis, Greece may not have a record tourism season this year but has the opportunity to gain a significant share of the market this year and next, from a smaller tourism market due to its good performance in managing the pandemic.

Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis had a series of meetings with several German government officials during his visit to Berlin, as well as senior Condor Airlines executives, who informed him that the airline has 150 scheduled flights to Greece each week, to 16 different destinations in the country. Theoharis was in Berlin on Thursday.

Greek tourism has already been hit by cancellations of bookings from Chinese tourists, but the problem is spreading to other markets. The Tourism Ministry had been planning for a sharp increase in Chinese visitors but targetted growth for 2020 is off the table.

Euromonitor International says that it sees the number of tourists reaching Greek shores next year as easing 2 percent to 31.7 million, versus 32.4 million in 2019. This pushes Greece's target for another record year in 2020 out of range as concerns also grow that the sector may not play the crucial role needed to help the economy expand by an ambitious 2.8 percent, as forecast by the government.

The Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) said that «The closure of Thomas Cook is a very unpleasant development that requires a rapid and effective response».