On the initiative of the Deputy Minister of Economy & Development, Mr. Stathis Giannakidis, and the Minister of Tourism, Ms Elena Kountoura, the budget of the ERANEK action " Support for the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises" was increased by an additional 200 million. in order to meet the high investment interest and the need to support sustainable investments in the tourism sector.

A further EUR 200 million Formation of approved Public Expenditure

The initial public expenditure of the action was EUR 120 million. It had already risen to EUR 411 million. including 2,527 investment projects. With the new amendment of the Call, public expenditure will exceed EUR 600 million. Five times the initial budget, reinforced with EUR 150 million. € of public expenditure from RE-FUNDS and EUR 50 million euro from the resources of the Regional Operational Programmes. After the new decisions, the new investment plans will be included, according to the new grading base that will be formed for the evaluated proposals per group of Regions.

Statements by the competent authorities

The Deputy Minister of Economy & Development, Mr. Stathis Giannakidis, in a statement, notes: "Exceeding 600 million euros, it is a very important step forward. We are satisfying the increased interest in investing in tourism and mobilising capital that will far exceed 1 billion euros, boosting growth and employment in a critical sector for the Greek economy."

In a statement, the Minister of Tourism, Ms. Elena Kountoura, stressed that: "Our government is the first to recognize the value of tourism as a whole for the economy and society and we emphasized on supporting small and medium-sized entrepreneurship, which is the basis of the Greek economy. In direct cooperation with the Ministry of Economy & Development, we designed and announced through EPAnEK two programs to support small and medium-sized tourism enterprises, existing ones for the possibility of their modernization and upgrade, but also for the establishment of new small and medium-sized tourism enterprises.

I would like to thank the competent Deputy Minister, Stathis Giannakidis, who responded to our request to expand the number of beneficiaries and ensured that the programme's budget was increased fivefold from EUR 110 million. euros initially, at 600 million euro. Thus, in order to enable more investment projects to integrate and proceed with more small and medium-sized tourism investments in the coming years in all regions of Greece".

More information about the action here.