Greece 2.0 Recovery Tool to Fund Key Tourism Projects

Photo source: Visit Greece / Y. Skoulas

Greek Deputy Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis approved 55 projects, including key tourism investments, budgeted at 3.35 billion euros to be funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”.

In total, 103 projects budgeted at 6.11 billion euros have so far been included in the Greece 2.0 tool: 12 (1.42 billion euros) approved in July 2021 and 36 (1.34 billion euros) in October 2021.

The minister announced that 55 new flagship projects have been approved in the following areas: green transition, digitization, employment – skills – social cohesion, and private investments & reforming the economy.

The tourism sector stands to gain from the funding as several key projects have received the go-ahead. Among these are:

– the upgrade of tourist port infrastructure (161.05 million euros)

– the further development of mountain and winter tourism products and facilities (such as ski resorts) and the revision and simplification of legislation covering construction, licensing and operation of relevant infrastructure (56.57 million euros)

– the introduction of educational and upskilling programs for 18,000 tourism industry employees (43.97 million euros)

– the development of health and wellness tourism and the utilization of the country’s thermal springs (28.46 million euros)

– the development of diving and underwater tourism (22.05 million euros).

– improving the management of destinations through the establishment and operation of local or regional DMOs and of observatories for sustainable tourist development (18.45 million euros)

– making beaches accessible to people with mobility problems or disabilities with the construction of some 250 semi-permanent structures (17.21 million euros)

– developing a network that will link the agri-food, gastronomy and tourism sectors (dubbed Agri-Food, Gastronomy and Tourism Interconnection System – AGTIS), which will serve as the country’s management organization / (DMO) for gastronomy and agriculture (17.18 million euros)

– the creation of a specialized support office for the management of tourism ministry projects to be implemented through the recovery fund (1.04 million euros).

The Greek recovery tool will also fund reforms necessary to facilitate investments, including the simplification of tax legislation, the modernization of the labor law, and the streamlining of a legal framework to enable tax, financial and licensing incentives for business collaborations and mergers.

The European Commission approved in June, Greece’s resilience plan paving the way for the release of 30.5 billion euros to go towards reforms and investments that will enable the country to emerge stronger after Covid-19.