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Greece Among The Top 8 EU Destinations For Short-Term Rentals In Summer 2024

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

January 15, 2025

Greece has secured its spot as one of the eight most popular destinations for short-term rentals in the European Union, reflecting the increasing trend of platform-based tourism, according to Eurostat.

The country’s solid performance in the summer of 2024 aligns with a broader rise in short-term rental bookings across Europe. Eurostat’s latest data reveals an 18% year-on-year increase in bookings through platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia. Greece saw a 14.3% rise in overnight stays compared to 2023, contributing significantly to this growth.

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A Surge Across Europe

During the third quarter of 2024, short-term rental bookings across the EU reached 366.2 million overnight stays, with Greece accounting for 26.1 million of these, marking a 14.3% increase over the previous year.

The highest growth rates were seen in Malta (+40.9%), Germany (+26%), and Sweden (+24.6%). France, Spain, and Italy also experienced significant increases in bookings, with year-on-year growth rates of 23.8%, 20.2%, and 15.5%, respectively.

Strong Performance In The Summer Months

Across the EU, the third quarter of 2024 recorded robust growth in short-term rental bookings, with all three summer months showing impressive results:

July 2024: 135 million overnight stays, up 16.4% from the previous year.
August 2024: 152.2 million overnight stays, a 21.6% increase.
September 2024: 79 million overnight stays, rising 14% compared to 2023.

Malta led the EU in August with a 41.4% increase in overnight stays, followed by Germany (+32.7%) and France (+29.9%). Smaller increases were recorded in countries like Croatia (+9.7%), Bulgaria (+12.2%), and Slovenia (+13.6%).

In Greece, August saw a 16% rise in overnight stays, further cementing its status as a top summer destination in Europe.

Greece’s Continued Popularity In Short-Term Rentals

Greece’s growth in short-term rentals is part of a larger upward trend seen across the EU. The country is now firmly positioned as one of the eight most sought-after destinations for short-term rentals, joining:

France
Spain
Italy
Greece
Croatia
Germany
Portugal
Poland

The Rise Of Platform-Based Tourism

The Eurostat report underscores a broader trend of growing reliance on platform-based tourism, with all eight top destinations surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Greece’s inclusion among these countries highlights its enduring appeal to travellers seeking short-term rentals.

This sustained growth not only underscores Greece’s importance in the European tourism market but also reflects the country’s ability to adapt to evolving travel preferences.

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OpenAI Releases GDPval Benchmark To Gauge AI Performance Against Human Experts

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 26, 2025

New Benchmark Sheds Light on AI’s Capabilities

OpenAI has unveiled GDPval, a new benchmark designed to evaluate its AI models against human professionals across a broad spectrum of industries. This initiative represents a critical step in understanding how far today’s AI is from matching or surpassing the work quality of experts in sectors such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and government.

Methodology and Industry Scope

The GDPval benchmark focuses on nine major industries contributing to America’s gross domestic product and tests AI performance in 44 distinct occupations—from software engineering to nursing and journalism. In its initial version, GDPval-v0, industry professionals compared reports generated by AI models with those produced by their human counterparts. For instance, investment bankers were tasked with evaluating competitor landscape analyses for the last-mile delivery industry, ensuring that the assessment reflects real-world complexity.

Comparative Performance: AI Advances and Limitations

Results indicate promising progress; OpenAI’s GPT-5-high, an enhanced iteration of its flagship model, achieved a win rate of 40.6% when compared head-to-head with industry veterans. More notably, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.1 reached nearly 49% on similar criteria. However, OpenAI acknowledges that these models are not yet positioned to replace human labor entirely, as the current iteration of GDPval covers a narrow slice of actual job responsibilities.

Expert Insights and Future Directions

In a discussion with TechCrunch, OpenAI’s chief economist, Dr. Aaron Chatterji, noted that the benchmark’s favorable outcomes suggest professionals may soon delegate routine tasks to AI. This, he argued, will free up valuable time for focusing on higher-impact work. Industry observer Tejal Patwardhan also expressed optimism, emphasizing the significant performance leap from GPT-4’s 13.7% score to nearly triple that figure with GPT-5.

Benchmarking And The Road To Comprehensive AI Evaluation

While GDPval represents an early milestone, it aligns with a broader effort among Silicon Valley titans to create robust testing frameworks, such as AIME 2025 and GPQA Diamond, that better quantify AI proficiency for real-world applications. OpenAI plans to expand GDPval to encapsulate more industries and interactive workflows, aiming to bolster its claims about AI’s growing economic value.

As the benchmark evolves, GDPval could play an instrumental role in the ongoing debate around artificial general intelligence, highlighting the potential and limitations of AI models poised to reshape the modern workforce.