In European markets, early bookings for Greece tours for the 2022 summer season are now higher than pre-pandemic 2019.
Particularly active are applications from Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, the Baltic countries, and Romania. German partners expect to send up to 3 million tourists to Greek resorts, which is twice as many as in 2019.
Against the backdrop of increased demand, there is a shortage of places in a number of popular hotels. As for contract prices, they were announced to tour operators at the end of summer – beginning of autumn last year. Some accommodation facilities have kept rates at the high season level – 2021, others have increased by 3-5%. Now, due to the activation of bookings, many have a desire to raise prices, but this is impossible, since the agreements have already been signed. Therefore, hoteliers can only minimize the number of special offers – discounts are announced infrequently.
Apparently, direct customers who book rooms at rack prices will have to pay more for accommodation. Hoteliers will have to increase such rates in order to maintain the margins of the business. Over the past few months, hotel costs have risen significantly – in Greece, electricity has risen in price by 54%, gas prices and other utility bills are rising.
As for early bookings of tours to Greek resorts in the Ukrainian market, they have reached the level of 2019.