Athens only made 42 cents per visitor last year
ÜCOMMENTARY
to start with two revealing, and I would say disturbing – in their combination – set of numbers. The only income that the Municipality of Athens had from tourist activity in 2023 – by all accounts one of the best years for tourism – was just 2,714,664 euros. This revenue is approximately 50% less from what the city had collected 17 years ago, in 2007, when the corresponding revenue had reached 5,183,640 euros.
During the same period (in the last decade, to be precise) the number of hotels and hotel rooms in the central sector of Athens increased by 26% and 21% respectively, while there was an increase of 475% in short-term rental accommodation, according to the data of the Research Institute for Tourism. Also, according to data from the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency as well as hotel operators, it is estimated that Athens welcomed 6.5-7 million tourists in 2023.
I quote these figures to make absolutely clear the problem we are facing: Athens collected just 42 cents per tourist visiting the city last year!
More to the point, while the demands for services and infrastructure in Athens are increasing at a leaping rate, the means we have to respond are also decreasing at a leaping rate, which creates serious dysfunctions in the city and the tourism product itself.
But it is not the only problem. Athens is now establishing itself as an important tourist destination throughout the year. Thus, the benefits as well as the burden from tourist arrivals are not limited to some months of the summer. According to the official figures of hoteliers, in the last two years the occupancy rate of Athenian hotels increased even in December.
This tourism growth finds the municipality understaffed and under-resourced. The central administration has “frozen” hirings in the municipalities for years, while every year 200-300 workers retire in the city. According to conservative estimates, the wider cleaning sector is short of 800 workers.
At the same time, revenues that were drastically reduced during the country's debt crisis due to the bailouts never returned to the levels that the legislator had foreseen. The waste management fee was suddenly added, which in the Municipality of Athens translates into 7 million euros for 2024. The more important problem though, is that Athens is underfunded by the state budget. The state grant it receives corresponds to a population of approximately 700,000 inhabitants, while the actual population that lives, operates, and visits Athens every day is approximately 10 times that.
With these realities in mind, we ask for two things:
First, the visitor's tax already paid to the municipality (as in all municipalities) should be attributed to the percentage originally voted by the Greek Parliament, that is, to 2% and not to 0.5% where it was reduced by ministerial decision in 2009.
Secondly, the revenue from the so called “resilience fee” imposed on hotels and short-term rental accommodation and paid by the owners, should not be directed to the central administration, but to local government, as the Central Union of Greek Municipalities (KEDE) recently decided unanimously.
We, as a municipal authority, are exhausting every bit of our ability to respond to the increased demands created by the operation of many and large hotels in the city center. I refer to both the services we offer (learning, network and infrastructure maintenance, policing etc), but also finding resources to help us improve the services we provide. The Municipality of Athens has also imposed the visitor's fee on short-term rental accommodation, for which it has been taken to the administrative courts.
To conclude, Athens needs all of us to help it reach its potential as a capital, as a tourist destination and as a place of residence. Tourism professionals share this goal, they are our natural allies. In this effort we want them with us.
While the demands for services and infrastructure in Athens are increasing at a leaping rate, the means to respond are also decreasing at a leaping rate
* Haris Doukas is the mayor of Athens.