More rooms, no cars
With accommodation and transportation shaping up as the foremost problem-areas in the preparation of the 2004 Athens Olympics, the government is prepared to provide tax incentives to private citizens for subletting their apartments to visitors during the Olympics and to severely regulate the flow of cars during the period of the Games (August 13-29, 2004). Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, speaking at a business conference on the Olympics yesterday, said a bill dealing with accommodation and transportation will be submitted soon to Parliament. The bill, still in the drafting stage, will provide a tax exemption for incomes acquired through subletting an apartment or house. Incentives will also be provided for people to leave their jobs and work as volunteers. Venizelos provided no details about how the bill will deal with transportation matters but gave a hint when he said that «we must forget our cars for 15 days.» Denis Oswald, chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission overseeing the preparations said yesterday that 2,800 rooms still must be booked for «Olympic family» – officials, sponsors and others – but said he was confident a solution could be found. The Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourism Agents accused the government of failing to act in time on housing hundreds of thousands of expected tourists. They estimated the number of rooms needed during the Games at 150,000 and said that most of the 40,000 rooms within a 175-kilometer radius from Athens were substandard. HATTA also demanded that rooms to be sublet be certified as meeting safety and hygiene standards. The government said no new hotels will be built in the Athens area for the Games. Oswald had an agreeable meeting with Venizelos but was especially blunt about time lost and the need for the government and organizers to stop bickering and get on with the task at hand. «It is vital that all the elements that constitute the lifeblood of the country work together, putting aside any quarrels… and cooperating in a coordinated matter. In my view, this is a civic duty and obligation toward the nation,» Oswald told the conference. The Council of State did its piece for civic duty yesterday by temporarily stopping the sale of a majority stake of the Maroussi Municipal Corporation to a European consortium which has undertaken to build a media village in the municipality, near the main Olympic sports complex. The Council of State will debate the motion against the sale by local residents and municipal councillors – including former javelin world record holder Sophia Sakorafa – on June 17. Motions and petitions against Olympic projects by local residents have been one of the main reasons for the delays in the construction of Olympic venues. In almost all cases, the Council of State has ruled in favor of the projects.
