The increase in value-added tax (VAT) on Greek islands has not paid off, according to comparative data examining VAT revenues at 20 island destinations, including the country’s two largest islands Crete and Evia, tabled in parliament last week.

SETE, the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises has decried the troika demand for increases in VAT across the tourism sector, saying that the planned hikes would be ‘catastrophic’ as they will lead to 2.5 million fewer tourists in 2015, a 3.8 billion euro contraction of GDP and thousands of job losses.