They took place on Tuesday, September 19 two urgent, due to the state of emergency of Magnesia, teleconferences with the Hotel Associationn, which raised its demands in order to help tourism businesses get back on their feet as soon as possible, after the passage of the bad weather “Daniel”.

As it became known, a video conference was initially held with the advisor of the Minister of Tourism, Olgas Kefalogiannis, Konstantinos Zikos together with the president of X.E.E., Alexandros Vassilikos, the President of P.O.X., Grigoris Tasios and Giannis Kouroupa, president of the Trikala Hotel Association.

The Union of Hoteliers of Larissa was represented by the Union of Hoteliers of Magnesia, as well as Giorgos Zafeiris, as the representative of Thessaly on the Board. of the Hotel Chamber of Greece, referred to many issues of the hoteliers of Thessaly, which in most cases are common.

“We urgently raised all the immediate problems, such as the suspension of work without conditions or confirmed damages, since the damages from the cancellations that followed the disaster are at 100% not only for the following days but also for the following months. Also, the self-evident problem of providing business financing according to the Covid model was raised as an urgent request. We explained in all tones that the non-competence of the tourism ministry does not mean that our requests should not be put by the minister to the competent ministries and that there should be pressure on her part so that the problems can be resolved as quickly as possible. The presidents of POX and XEE completely agreed with us and have as their positions the positions of the associations of Thessaly. Although these issues have been raised in the ministries since the first day, especially those that need immediate resolution, so far no answer has been given. We consider the measures that have been taken and announced so far to be inapplicable in most cases. Most of these boil down to the issue of which business is considered affected.

A teleconference of the Board of Directors followed. of the Union of Hoteliers of Magnesia, following our invitation with the MPs of Magnesia. MP N.D. was present. of Magnesia, Christos Boukoros and the SYRIZA Member of Parliament of Magnesia Alexandros Meikopoulos. The General Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Myron Flouris, also participated in the teleconference. We discussed all our requests that have already been forwarded to the Ministries asking for their immediate settlement and making it clear that we do not want to hear only wishful thinking and promises, but that there should be help and support “yesterday”. In addition to our requests, which mainly concern the strengthening of business liquidity and the freezing or suspension of liabilities, we also insisted on the meteoric issue of maintaining jobs in the affected hotels (we have already mentioned the suspensions at the will of the hotelier). We noted that many accommodations are seasonally operated, which essentially lose the last two months, but also the continuously operated ones for which unfortunately we see that the winter season will be lost. We put special emphasis on the issue of strengthening the image of the region which is now disheartening as it is presented in the media. It was decided as a first move for this to send a letter and to pressure the Deputy Minister of Health to now have water measurements for each separate municipal district of the whole of Thessaly. It is not possible once again for the Athenian-centric state with a single fund to equalize everyone. To not understand the specificity of the regions.

Mr. Boukoros informed us about the actions he has already taken as president of the Production and Trade Committee, the questions he asked the Parliament and the letters he sent to the ministers. We requested direct contact of the ministry with the airlines, which have flights to the airport of central Greece and intervention so that these flights continue next year as well. It is a very big issue because we fear that after Easy Jet other airlines will follow and this will be disastrous for the region.

We have added to our demands the issue of reducing consumption tax on oil, gas and natural gas. Special mention was made of the suspension of bank loan installments, the suspension of confiscations, auctions, expulsions and personal reservations, which were announced by the minister, Mr. Hatzidakis, and we emphasized that special importance should be given to the issue of unbinding the accounts of businesses that have subject to conservatory seizures for pending cases.

We declared in all tones that there is no waiting period and that the domino of developments is “catching up” with the government. We must coordinate with the Unions, together with the agencies to start solving the problems one by one, but immediately! They must understand that the operations of Magnesia and Thessaly will not endure any longer. We stated that, as we mentioned in the previous press release, we need to help businesses that have opened or are about to open not to close again and those that are closed to open. Our patience has run out and it has turned into despair, because 15 days after the tragic events, nothing has actually been done regarding business.”