VAT Hike a Destructive Blow to Greek Tourism Say Accommodation Professionals, Call on PM to Withdraw Proposal

Accommodation professionals are calling on Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to step in and withdraw a recent proposal to increase value added tax (VAT) on hotel accommodation from the current 6.5 percent to 13 percent.

In a recent statement, the Confederation of Greek Enterprises for Rented Villas & Apartments (SEEDDE) said the decision would be a “destructive blow” to Greek tourism and a death sentence for small-scale accommodation and would foil all efforts to boost tourism made in the last two years.

The confederation went on to say that SMEs would not be able to absorb the increase and cannot renegotiate the 2015 tourist packages already sold thus threatening their survival and the future of their employees.

The confederation added that even if the tax hikes were passed on to the consumer, it would be detrimental to Greek tourism, which it described as the driver of the Greek economy, making it uncompetitive, pushing millions of tourists to neighboring cheaper destinations and ultimately taking Greece off the world tourist map.