New Action “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises”

The Ministry of National Economy and Finance announced the announcement of Action “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises”, which concerns enhancement of tourism entrepreneurship through the creation of new very small, small and medium enterprises of selected activity codes (KAD) of tourism, encouraging the creation of new businesses that, in addition to contributing to increasing the potential of the Greek tourism industry, will offer quality and reliable services and will contribute to enriching the tourism product, as well as increasing employment.

  • Start Date of Electronic Submission: Monday 18.12.2023 at 15:00
  • Deadline for Electronic Submission: Thursday 29.02.2024 at 15:00

Budget of the Action “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small-Medium Tourism Enterprises”

The Action’s budget amounts to 160,000,000 euros.

The Action is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union and by National Participation.

Investment Plans and support rates

The minimum and maximum subsidized budget is 80,000 euros up to 400,000 euros.

The rate of support for funding applications is uniform for all eligible costs of the investment projects and amounts to 45% of the subsidized budget.

The percentage of the grant may be increased by:

  • 10% if the investment is made in a remote or fire-prone or earthquake-prone or flood-prone area or small islands (according to Annex X) and/or
  • an additional 5% with the declaration when submitting the financing application of a target of employment of at least 0.2 FME, in the first year after the completion of the investment

Beneficiaries of the Action

Beneficiaries of the Action are:

Category A. Under establishment. Businesses that will be established after the date of publication of the Action notice until the first disbursement of the grant and will operate exclusively in eligible KAD throughout the implementation of the investment plan and until the investment is repaid, according to APPENDIX II ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES (KAD).

Category B. Newly established. The term newly established is defined as businesses for which 12 months of continuous operation has not passed (12 months have not passed from the date of the start of the business in the AADE until the date of the announcement of the Action). It is noted that they should be active exclusively in the Action’s eligible KAD, which are included in Appendix II- ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES (KAD), when submitting the funding application, throughout the implementation of the investment plan and until the investment is repaid.

Beneficiaries must, among others, meet the following eligibility conditions:

  • The proposed investment plan must concern at least one of the eligible KADs of APPENDIX II ELIGIBLE FIELDS OF ACTIVITY (KAD), which the company should have before the first disbursement of the grant.
  • To submit one and only funding application per VAT number in this Action.
  • Gather at least a grade of 70 during the self-evaluation of the investment plan based on the criteria of Appendix III.
    It should be noted that it is not permissible to submit the financing application to OPSKE if the above condition is not met.
  • Declare as the place/places for the implementation of the actions of this Action exclusively in one Region of the Country and in its regions where the same aid intensity applies. The Region in which the investment project will be carried out is stated in the financing application. It is clarified that the company can implement expenses at the company’s headquarters and/or in its branches, as long as all the implementation points belong to the same region and the areas / places of implementation have the same intensity of support. Plans located in the Regional Unit of Mykonos and the Regional Unit of Thira, in the Municipality of Thira, except for the Municipal Community of Thira, are excluded, as detailed in Section 2.2 REGIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACTION.
  • Provide evidence of securing the Private Participation of the proposed investment project at a rate of at least 60%

 The overall conditions for the participation of the beneficiaries are presented in detail in the Call for Action.

It is clarified that companies must have the investment KAD before the first disbursement.

It should be pointed out that investment projects with the “Accommodation” Investment Plan (Accommodation Plan 55) of the tourism sector should follow the following conditions:

Main hotel accommodations

Hotels

  • Classification in category 4**** (four stars) and above
  • Capacity twelve (12) beds and more

Hotel tourist accommodations in traditional buildings provided in p.d. 33/1979

Organized tourist camps (camping)

Non-main hotel accommodation

Self-catering accommodation – tourist furnished houses

  • Minimum number of houses: three (3)

Noted: All self-catering accommodation – tourist furnished houses must necessarily be incorporated in the same MHTE Mark.

Furnished-rooms-apartments-for-rent

  • Classification in category 4 keys and above
  • Minimum capacity twelve (12) beds

Eligible expenses in the Action “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises”

For the formulation of the budget of the investment projects to be financed in the Action, eligible basic categories of expenses are the following:

  • Buildings, facilities and environment
  • Machines – Equipment
  • Digital Equipment – software and software services

Additionally, costs are enhanced for:

a) Certification of Quality Assurance Systems, Environmental Management according to national, harmonized, as well as other European and international standards
b) projection, extroversion and internationalization
c) means of transport
d) studies and consulting services
e) indirect costs

Application Process

The application for funding must be submitted electronically through the Integrated Information System for State Aid Management (OPSKE).

Funding applications in which all the mandatory fields of OPSKE have not been completed will not be possible to submit.

For the evaluation of funding applications, comparative evaluation will be applied.

See the publication of the Notice here. 

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