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1. Greece To Double Hotel Climate Change Tax
Officials in Greece plan to double the amount allocated to its climate change fund from €300 million ($320 million) to €600 million “by raising a hospitality levy by between €1 and €6 per night,” according to newspaper The National. The tax will also be levied on those “who rent three or more properties on short-term lease platforms … [who] will have to pay value-added tax and all taxes paid by hotels,” said the country’s prime minster Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Greece suffered calamitous wildfires in July of this year, which have been followed the torrential rain and flooding in September, both incidents resulting in the loss of life and a huge economic price tag. The Greek government said repairs to the country’s rail network stemming from the flooding alone will cost €150 million.
2. Study Shows Airbnb More Expensive Than Hotels
The United Kingdom’s principal consumer-protection magazine “Which?" said average daily rates at Airbnb and its peers came in consistently higher than hotel room rates based on a study it conducted in 13 U.K. destinations and 37 worldwide. The survey compared the “cost of thousands of hotel rooms with 300,000 one-bed listings on popular accommodation rental websites,” according to Yahoo Finance.
The report found that a “one-night stay in a hotel was an average of £101 ($125), compared with £120 ($149) across Airbnb and Vrbo.” The research suggested it was less expensive to stay at a hotel in all four capital cities of the U.K.’s individual countries.
3. Eurozone Interest Rates Soar To Record High
With the latest 25-basis-point increase from the European Central Bank late last week, interest rates in the European Union have been raised for the 10th consecutive time to a new record high of 4%. The bank added in a statement that its “macroeconomic projections for the euro area see average inflation at 5.6% in 2023, 3.2% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025.”
The BBC reports the U.K. is headed down a similar path.
“Interest rates in the U.K. are currently higher than in the Eurozone at 5.25%, but U.K. inflation is also higher at 6.8%, and the Bank of England is expected to raise rates again [this] week,” the news outlet reported.
4. China Evergrande Executives Arrested
Chinese authorities have arrested officials of real estate and hotel developer China Evergrande’s wealth-management division, claiming the Shenzhen, China-based company “failed to repay investors,” according to CNN Business. Shares in the Chinese company — which owns Evergrande Hotels & Resorts and two major Chinese theme parks — fell by as much as 26% when the Hong Kong Stock Exchange opened on Sept. 18, although shares recovered to close at only 1.6% lower than its starting price. CNN added that on Sept. 16, Shenzhen government officials said the wealth-management division is “suspected of illegal fundraising.”
Other Chinese hotel developers also face pressure, including Country Garden. During an earnings call in August, officials with that company noted they faced “the most severe difficulty that the company has ever faced” and questioned whether the company could continue to exist on its current path. In August, China Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan court, according to Reuters, which said the firm’s “filing comes amid growing fears that problems in China’s property sector could spread to other parts of the country’s economy as growth slows.”
5. Thailand Tourism Bosses Reset Visitor Numbers to 40 Million
Often heading annual lists of the world’s most-popular tourism destination, Thailand now is boosting its efforts to welcome 40 million visitors per year, according to Tourism Review.
Hitting 40 million visitors would be a significant milestone for the country as that was the pre-pandemic record set in 2019, although government officials say it might take "a few years or more" to hit that goal.
One initiative is to start a visa-free entry system for Chinese visitors starting on Sept. 25. Its forecast for 2023 was for 28 million visitors and tourism revenue receipts to rise in full-year terms by 29% to 3.1 trillion baht ($864 billion). The Thai government said it also plans to increase airlift to its secondary cities.