Greece’s’ largest employers’ group, SEV, on Thursday pointed to tax evasion and the direct deposit of tourism-related revenues in overseas banks as the reasons for the apparent decrease in the all-important sector’s receipts for the first eight months of the year.
The figure, announced by the Bank of Greece (BoG) this week, apparently shows a “gap” of nearly 750 million euros in the Jan-Aug 2016 period, compared to the same period in 2015 — and despite the fact that tourist arrivals in 2016 increased.
The Federation of Greek Enterprises, in its weekly bulletin, said over-taxation and still imposed capital controls have caused many tourism businesses to collect revenues overseas, similar to what shipping companies and exporters have done for decades.
Besides payment overseas for tour packages in Greece, many businesses — such as hotels, restaurants, shops in holiday areas — often used credit card terminals linked with foreign banks.
In one stinging example of alleged disorganization, as it says, SEV said the Greek state has still not been able to consolidate, under one entity, all of the services necessary to better attract cruise ship tourism: port facilities, docking, towing, customs, immigration, transportation
