With the approval of nearly one in three applications to set up tourism businesses for the country’s regions, the marathon that began last year has come to an end. A total of 1,573 applications for funding, with a total public expenditure of 295,757,680 euros, were approved, following the decision to accept by the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis the relevant results, which emerged after the meetings of the ten Evaluation Committees for the action “Supporting the establishment and operation of new small and medium-sized tourism enterprises” in the regions: North Aegean, Eastern Macedonia – Thrace, Central Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Western Greece, Crete, Western Macedonia, Ionian Islands, Sterea Greece, Peloponnese.

In total, 5,165 applications were examined with a requested budget of EUR 1,753,746,326.18 and a total requested public expenditure of EUR 959,089,150.77.

This decision completes the evaluation of the funding applications submitted under this action in all 13 regions of the country. For the country as a whole, of the 6,669 funding applications submitted, 2,021 were approved, with a public expenditure of EUR 379,539,901.37.

On this basis, the average grant amounted to 187,798 euros.

It is recalled that on 30 May, the results for Attica and South Aegean were announced, with the approval of 448 funding applications, with a total public expenditure of 83,782,221.17 euros.

The action aims to support SMEs that want to invest in tourism and thus increase jobs, prolong the tourist season, but also to enhance the prospects of the sector, which is a key pillar of the national development policy.

The approved projects are financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union and by national participation.

Beneficiaries are informed electronically, at the contact email address indicated in the submission form, through the Integrated State Aid Information System (ISIS).

The decision has been uploaded in the programme DIASYEIA and has been published on the websites of the EEAS of the Competitiveness Programme http://www.antagonistikotita.gr, the NSRF https://www.espa.gr, and the Intermediate Body (IE) http://www.efepae.gr

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