The president of POX talked about accommodations with over 200,000 rooms that need support
The president of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers, Yiannis Hatzis, addressed the obstacles that put a brake on the quality upgrade of Greek hospitality at the 1st POX Regional Conference in Karpenisi, with the theme: “Co-shaping the Tourism Product of Mainland Greece”.
In fact, he spoke of a perennial lack of support for hotels up to 3 stars, which in terms of capacity exceed 200,000 rooms in Greece. In fact, in order to reverse the above image, he requested that they have access to the financial tools to upgrade their quality, so that they can modernize their facilities both energy-wise and in terms of infrastructure. However, after repeated interventions by POX, there was recently the pre-publication of the energy upgrade program, “Exkoyonamo”, which – as Mr. Hatzis said – is moving in the right direction.
Addressing the businessmen of the sector, Mr. Hatzis underlined that POX, in collaboration with DELOITTE, is preparing a series of free Consulting workshops that will help prepare members who wish to upgrade their facilities. Also, through a strategic agreement concluded by POX with the National Bank, the president of POX underlined, an effort is being made to create a special product for financing capital costs of small hotel accommodations, so that entrepreneurs can also draw liquidity from the bank system. “These two actions, combined with the trade union pressure we are exerting, we hope will be framed by a brave subsidy program for small hotels from the Ministry of Development”, emphasized Mr. Hatzis in his intervention.
As for the problems that POX is asking for immediate solutions, these concern short-term leasing, the durability fee and the high rate of VAT on accommodation. Regarding the short-term lease, the president of POX mentioned that “we have reached the point of having 1,000,000 beds! in such accommodations which operate without a basic legislative framework, without basic hygiene and safety standards”. Regarding the durability fee, Mr. Hatzis spoke of a fee that was instituted without any prior consultation and operates at the expense of local communities, while regarding the VAT he mentioned that the Value Added Tax charges our customers with a percentage, which is higher than all our international competitors.
