China News Service, June 20, according to the European Union quoted the Greek European Union News Agency reported that on June 19 local time, the Greek Ministry of Health at the regular news conference of the new crown epidemic situation informed that Greece has diagnosed a total of 3237 cases of new coronary pneumonia, the cumulative number of deaths is 189 people. In addition, the Greek Bank released data on the 19th that the epidemic severely hit Greece's tourism revenue.
According to reports, the Greek State Gate has been reopened to EU countries since June 15, with a view to restarting the Greek tourism industry as soon as possible. According to data released by the Bank of Greece on June 19, the new crown epidemic severely hit Greece's tourism revenue. Even in the best case, it is expected that this year's tourism revenue will be only 8 billion euros, and losses will reach nearly 10 billion euros. Last year, Greece's annual tourism revenue was 18.1 billion euros.
According to statistics, from January to April this year, compared with the same period last year, the number of tourists visiting Greece decreased by 36.1%, and income decreased by 51.4%. In April, the number of arrivals fell by 96.2% year-on-year; tourism revenue plummeted from 544 million euros in the same period last year to 7 million euros.
The international accounting firm Ernst & Young also issued a new report that, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the Greek hotel’s turnover this year will be as high as 4.46 billion euros. Among them, the loss of operating hotels for the whole year will reach 1.2 billion euros, and the turnover of seasonal hotels will drop by 3.26 billion euros.
Ernst & Young forecasts that the number of tourists visiting Greece will decline from 34.4 million in 2019 to 14.5 million this year, and tourism revenue will fall from more than 18 billion euros last year to 8.9 billion euros this year.
The report also predicts that the Greek tourism industry will not return to the scale and level of 2019 until 2025. Among them, the number of tourists visiting Greece is expected to rise to 24.8 million by 2024, and tourism revenue will rebound to 15.2 billion euros.
Prior to this, the Greek Deputy Minister of Tourism Consolas had said that Greece will usher in the most difficult summer ever.
Ernst & Young believes that Greek tourism companies should give priority to health and safety issues, maintain close contact with suppliers, investors and regulators, pay attention to cash flow, and take strategic actions to develop new ones with countries that have also performed well in handling the new crown crisis market.
In addition, according to the statistics of the Greek Statistics Office, the new crown epidemic has hit many industries including tourism, especially in April, many companies have suspended their activities and their turnover has shrunk by 97%. Among them, the turnover of the arts and entertainment industry, hotels and catering companies decreased by 93.3% and 85.5% year-on-year, respectively; the turnover of the film and television production and music recording and publishing industries fell by 97.1%. Although agriculture, forestry, fishery, banking, insurance, and education are also affected, the decline in turnover is relatively small.
According to the prediction of the European Commission, the Greek economy will shrink by 9.7% this year. Given that tourism directly and indirectly contributes to about 20% of Greece’s GDP, even if there is a risk of a new crown epidemic, Greece will not be able to completely shut out tourists this year. (Liang Manyu)