Greece’s 2025 tourism season has been a story of contradictions, with overall revenue and international arrivals hitting new highs while hotels, especially in Athens, saw their occupancy rates and profits squeezed by surging competition from short-term rentals.
In July, hotels in Athens saw their average occupancy fall to 83.3% from 86.4% in the same month last year, according to data from the Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association. Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key industry metric, also fell by 2.5%.
This decline in hotel performance came even as Greece's overall tourism revenue for the first half of the year climbed 11% to €7.6 billion.
International air arrivals for the first seven months of 2025 were up 5.3% to 15.2 million, according to the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation.
Industry analysts point to the explosive growth of short-term rental accommodations as the primary cause of the pressure on hotels.
A record 246,000 such properties were available for rent in Greece in July, a sharp increase from previous years.
While Athens hotels continue to outperform those in Istanbul, they lag behind key European competitors like Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona in metrics such as occupancy and revenue.