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Hundreds of tourism businesses are in danger of being trapped after Tui, Europe’s largest travel agency, refused to pay its debts overnight this year.
Payments are traditionally paid up to 60 days after the departure date, with amounts running into the hundreds of thousands of euros for many hotels, money that is critical to the survival of the business in the winter months when traffic is anemic.
The Financial Times reports that they have seen recent proposals made by Tui to hoteliers, asking them to wait until March 2021 for these amounts.
Two hoteliers, according to the FT, point out that the tourism giant owes them 600,000 euros and if they do not collect them they will have to borrow to survive in the coming months.
Another Greek island businessman, waiting to receive € 70,000, says he is considering terminating his contract with Tui, noting that while other agents have helped hotels with special offers, Tui’s effort shows a cold and capitalist. .
Nektarios Santorinios, a SYRIZA MP from Rhodes, said the delay was a bomb for hotels. “They took a great risk this year in the middle of a pandemic and many have accumulated losses.” It will be a great fight for the survival of many three or four star hotels. “
Santorinios and 34 other SYRIZA MPs sent a question to Parliament last week, asking the government to pressure Tui, Greece’s largest travel agency, to withdraw and pay. They also want the government to raise the ceiling on short-term hotel loans from € 800,000 to € 3 million.
For his part, Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis says the government is “closely monitoring the situation” and hopes to get additional support from the EU. for the country’s tourism industry.
According to the Financial Times, losses to tourism from the pandemic are projected to reach 12-14 billion, according to data from the Bank of Greece.
Tui, for his part, claims to have made “a significant number of prepayments to hoteliers for the summer of 2020, a large percentage” and that he has contacted businessmen from Spain and Greece (two of his biggest clients) to discuss payment plans and common options.
The giant cooperates with 1,400 hotels in Spain and more than 2,000 in Greece, but owes more money to Greek professionals since our country was considered safe to travel in summer by the British government for a longer time.
At the same time, the company is trying to obtain 1.8 billion from the German government, in addition to the 2 billion it has already received in government loans. You are even considering other solutions to improve your liquidity.
It is noted that 15 days ago Tui declared that “reservations in Greece for next summer are looking very good, which is the result of how well Greece prepared the opening of tourism in the post-Covid era. “The way the Greek government prepared the restart could be the model for many destinations in Europe as it continues its successful tourist season.”
These were the words of Thomas Ellerbeck, member of the TUI Group executive committee and head of Commercial and Political Relations.
SYRIZA’s question last week
The issue has been raised by SYRIZA since October, while last week 34 members of the main opposition had submitted a relevant question to the Ministers of Tourism and Development and Investment.
The official opposition reported
The relevant announcement of TUI speaks of partial amortization of up to 25% of debts, within 2020 and resumption of amortization procedures, from spring 2021 onwards, that is, after the official start of the next season tourist, thus condemning financial asphyxia. , those entrepreneurs who opened their accommodations this year.
At a time when the turnover of most of the country’s tourism companies has moved, according to the data so far, between 20% and 40%, it is easy to understand that the owners of most of the accommodations are On the verge of viability and the already announced suspension of payments, one of such scope and severity, for the movement of tourism in Greece, the tour operator company, contributes in a spectacular way to the looming increase in padlocks in the industry and to a nightmare recession.
The TUI pay station is expected to attract employees, primary sector and other sectors related to Tourism, mainly on the islands.
Tourism is the main activity in many areas of Greece and many companies, during this difficult year, opened their doors assuming a great risk. For the National Economy to recover, next season, its tourism, its people and its businesses will have to stay afloat.
Finally, given the close collaboration that the Government has developed with TUI this year, including taking steps to facilitate passenger transport, which could largely be considered privileged, it must now intervene to protect the hotel business and put pressure to prevent the industry from closing.
Based on the above, the Ministers of Tourism and Development and Investments are asked:
- How do you plan to cope with the sudden announcement of a suspension of payments, the largest tour operator operating in Greece?
- After this announcement-bomb, do the relevant Ministries plan to support the sector with more substantial, ad hoc and usable financial tools, which, however, will not lead to loans and will not act as a catalyst for more locks?
- The very good cooperation of the Ministry of Tourism with TUI, which was sealed by the recent decision to allocate an amount of around 1 million euros, through EOT, for promotional purposes to promote the Greek destination, will be the basis of some intervention institutional to reimburse the specific tour operator’s Greek tour companies?
The naughty refuge of summer
It is remembered that the tourist colossus pressed in the summer, threatening to cancel all trips and forced Kyriakos Mitsotakis to change the protocols for testing and the quarantine procedure for tourists, in favor of TUI.
