The Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas focused on the positive and negative perspectives that will open up for the city of Athens in the coming years, against the backdrop of increased tourist activity and the need for more greenery, speaking to Andriana Paraskevopoulou, Journalist-Presenter of ERT in the context of the 9th Delphi Economic Forum.

According to what Mr. Doukas mentioned, the tourist activity in the Municipality of Athens has increased a lotwith positive points of this phenomenon the wealth, the development of restaurants, bars and activities, but there are areas already oversaturated.

“We have to keep the city clean, but now for 7 million people, as it has triple the tourism. New tools, new ways and structures are needed to do this, otherwise the residents themselves will have a problem”, noted the Mayor of Athens.

In this context, he stated that there are considerations to give the Municipality a percentage of the increased turnover of the hotelsadding that there is already a durability fee, but that doesn’t go back to the city.

As he pointed out, there is the vagrancy fee, which was 2% and was reduced to 0.5% instead of increasing. “Hotel revenues in 2023 increased by 23%, reaching 11 billion euros, at a time when the Municipality was poorer, there should be a contribution to spread the wealth. Those who profit from the infrastructure in the city should give something back to the city. The needs are different in each city, it is up to each Municipality to determine the percentage of this return, even the hotels want this».

Regarding the Tsepis Parks, Mr. Doukas pointed out: “It’s a nice concept, but it doesn’t solve the main problem, which is the climate crisis. We have a lot of pollution, we have been condemned by the European Commission for not taking measures”.

In relation to Vasilissis Olga and the traffic of cars reported that can’t the city create a new Grand Walk there, while he stated that he has not received an answer from the Minister of Culture regarding the progress of the excavations.

Moreover, the Mayor of Athens does not agree with tolls within the city: “He doesn’t agree with me. Let’s expel the cars from Athens, but not with such procedures. We can boost public transport and do weekend walking».

At the end of his presentation, Mr. Doukas underlined that it is very crucial what will be done with the high summer temperatures, while he touched upon, following a question from Andriana Paraskevopoulos, the how can Athens become a “smart” city: “The smart city is not an end, it is the means, the goal is not digitization or the sale of gadgets, the goal is a sustainable, clean and inclusive city and to see how we can integrate technologies into it. Like, for example, using artificial intelligence in cleaning”. He added that there are 20 million euros from the Recovery Fund, which concern the creation of smart neighborhoods, their “greening” and the inclusion of artificial intelligence in everyday life.