“Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises”: 2nd amendment to the Call for Action

Small and medium-sized tourism enterprises

The second (2nd) amendment of the Call to Action of the “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises” program has been published “Competitiveness 2021/27”, according to which amends the Annex X: SPECIAL AID AREAS (remote areas and small islands) and replaces the areas based on the Postal Code (ZIP) of ELTA with the areas included in the Council Directive of July 20, 1981 on the Community list of disadvantaged agricultural areas within the meaning of Directive 75/268/EEC (Greece) (81/645/EEC).

The Action concerns the strengthening of tourist entrepreneurship through the creation of new very small, small and medium companies of selected activity codes (CAC) of tourism, encouraging the creation of new businesses that in addition to their contribution in increasing the capacity of the Greek tourism industry, they will offer quality and reliable services and will contribute to the enrichment of the tourist product, as well as increasing employment.

See the 2nd amendment to the Invitation here.

Budget of the Action “Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Small-medium-sized Tourist 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 carried out in a remote area or small islands (according to Annex X) or an area affected by fire or earthquake or flood, with a declaration when submitting the financing application to OPSKE of the relevant Decision in force (Government Gazette) which classifies the investment implementation area in one of the above categories and / and
  • 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 announcement until the first disbursement of the grant and will be active exclusively in eligible KAD(s) 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 have 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 project 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 a single funding application per VAT number in this Action.
  • Gain at least a grade of 70 during the self-evaluation of the investment project based on the criteria of Annex 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 a 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 intensity of aid 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 headquarters of the company and/or in its branches, as long as all the points of implementation 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 or 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