Starving the cow we are milking

This year’s summer season in Greece can be described as satisfactory overall, even though certain danger flags continue to fly. 

For example, a Greek company operating in the tourism sector is obliged to pay up to 76% of the pre-tax income for various tax and insurance charges.

Under such excessive, unreasonable and debilitating burdens, entrepreneurship cannot be developed and Greek tourism cannot boost its competitiveness, no matter how strongly local firms strive to absorb part of these charges in their final prices.

Moreover, receipts from tourism fell by 6.5% in 2016, which translates to 920 million less revenue.

The average spending of the tourist visiting Greece in 2016 dropped to 471 euros from 541 euros in 2015, a 13% decrease.

Expenditure per night in 2016 dropped by 9.1% to 68 euros, from 75 euros in 2015, while the average length of stay shrank to 6.9 nights in 2016, down by 4.3% compared to 2015 when it stood at 7.2 nights.

No analyst worth his salt can doubt that the reduction in revenue from tourism is the result of tax burdens that make the country’s product more expensive.

Furthermore, the looming imposition of a new overnight tax on hotels and rooms to let will further aggravate Greek hospitality and diminish its competitiveness in comparison with rival neighboring countries in tourism such as Italy, Spain, Croatia and Cyprus.

There can be no doubt that the policy of over-taxation is extremely detrimental for Greek tourism and can ultimately even turn out to be critical.

Let us therefore embrace these simple and self-evident truths the soonest, so that we will not eventually starve the cow we aspire to continue milking...