Many hopes for a substantial recovery were placed by the hotels of Athens – Attica in May this year, which is traditionally a ‘peak month’ for the capital. Despite the optimistic forecasts and estimates and the visible to all increase in the flow of foreign visitors to Athens, the first five months of 2022 ‘closed’ for hotels with a drop of 26.8% in occupancy and 25.8% in Income per Available Room (RevPar), while only the Average Room Price showed a small positive change (by 1.4%) compared to the corresponding five months of 2019 *.
Especially for the month of May, we can say that yes, it was a better month than the previous ones, it managed to ‘close’ the ‘gap’ between the results of 2019 and 2022 in the indicators examined, it slightly improved the Average Room Price and gave 82.1% average occupancy in hotels in Athens (which is 6.9% less than in 2019). However, the overall 5-month yield remained much lower than in 2019 *.
In addition, and this is worth worrying about, from the data of the competing cities of Athens, at a level of 5 months, it appears that in the same period, January – May 2022, cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Rome, Paris, London, Vienna, Munich, recorded clearly higher levels of occupancy and at the same time gained an impressive boost in their prices, which Athens is watching from a distance.
For example Paris reached fullness 61.9% and ADR € 249.47, Rome achieved fullness 54% and ADR € 165.97 respectively, Barcelona 61.4% and ADR € 136.32, Madrid 60.2% and ADR € 122.58, Istanbul fullness 66.8% and ADR € 104.98 compared to Athens which was full 52.6% and ADR € 98.07.
What deserves special attention is clearly the impressive differences observed in the percentage increase of the average room price (ADR) of the competing cities of Athens in 2022 – compared to 2021: The increase of ADR achieved by the competing cities this year in the first 5 months, ranged from less than 36.6% (Vienna) and 39.2% (Istanbul) to 119% (London) – in contrast to Athens where the increase in the average room rate showed a marginal change of 12.6%.
For its part, the Athens Attica and Argosaronikos Hoteliers Association has repeatedly insisted on the causes that shape the specific results in the tourism indicators of Athens. As he states, we hope for better performance in the coming months, because it is expected to be a difficult and very ‘expensive’ winter for everyone, for which we will need to ‘shield’ ourselves in time, especially the 12-month / continuous hotels, which do not have the ability to ‘hibernate’ for a sufficient period of time – something that clearly limits current operating costs and liabilities.
As it is also not possible to predict which balances will be maintained, which will be disturbed again, but also which new needs will arise, the only way we can suggest is to preserve the quality of the destination offer – with all that implies or demands – and the increase in demand, concludes EXAAA.
(* Note: 2019 is the tourist year with which it makes sense to compare any performance results, as the two years of the pandemic (2020-2021) on the one hand were not in operation all the hotels of the Attica Region and on the other hand the pandemic data and the flow of visitors internationally were completely different).
Source: Capital
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