With average occupancy of his class 85% this summer is coming for the entrepreneurs of the erooms for rent and apartments at Chalcidice and in the regions It’s boiling and News It’s boiling, Get white and Cross of Prefecture of Thessalonikias the president of the “Aristotelis” Tourist Accommodation Entrepreneurs Federation, Triantafyllos Papaioannou, says, according to which until 20/8 not a pin will drop.

Speaking of a special summer this year, Mr. Papaioannou estimates that in 2024 it will “close” either at last year’s levels or – in the worst case – with a reduction estimated at 10%. “Until May, pre-bookings recorded up to 85% occupancy for the entire season in Halkidiki and eastern Thessaloniki, and we, the businessmen, were surprised to find that the demand from last-minute visitors in many cases did not cover this remaining 15%”, explains Mr. Papaioanou. As he says, “last-minute bookings were recorded this year down by 90% compared to last year, but that’s also what happened traditionally in previous years.”

Referring to this year’s traffic, Mr. Papaioannou underlines that the special characteristics of this season include the tripling of the Turkish market, compared to 5% of the total that constituted the previous two years and the continuation of the momentum shown by the Romanian visitors from last year, who consistently “vote” for our country, representing 65% of all tourists. Among the negatives of this season, is the absence of Greek visitors, who this year are recorded as fewer than in 2023 at a rate of up to 70%, as well as the decrease in the percentage of Germans and English arrivals, which is estimated at 20%.
For the rest, according to Mr. Papaioannou, for the third year this year Italians choose Halkidiki and the above-mentioned coastal areas of eastern Thessaloniki for their holidays, Serbians maintain 30% of the total as a percentage of arrivals in our region and follow the Bulgarians, with three-day “escapes”.

Among other things, the president of the Federation of Tourist Accommodation Entrepreneurs “Aristoteles” notes that 2019 was one of the best years for the entrepreneurs of rooms and apartments for rent, “but since then, every year we are doing better, with the exception of 2020 of course -2021 when the coronavirus pandemic put us on “ice”. Thus, while 2022 was characterized as a reference year by the owners of rooms and apartments for rent, “2023 finally came to remind us that things can go even better”, he underlines and adds that last season closed with a turnover increase of 40% with 50% compared to 2019. “Now, the reference year for us, the owners of rented rooms and apartments, is 2023”, points out Mr. Papaioannou, expressing the hope that this season will surprise.

According to him, the prices in most of the 2,600 accommodations in Halkidiki (2,100 in Sithonia and Kassandra), with beds now exceeding 200,000, are at last year’s levels, when there was an increase of up to 15%.