Limiting short-term rentals of properties in famous tourist areas and establishing a special rate for financing renovations and infrastructure is proposed, among other things, in the new Special Spatial Regime for Tourism.
The Special Spatial Framework for Tourism was put out for public consultation on Wednesday, together with the Strategic Environmental Impact Study, by the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, following cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism. The procedure will last until September 15.
Based on this framework, the country (1,034 Municipal Units) is divided into five categories of regions based on the spatial structure of tourist accommodation as follows:
In the first category (A), under the name of Control Areas (overdeveloped) 18 Municipal Units were included, in B (developed areas) 84 Municipal Units were included, in C (areas under development) 139, in D (areas with potential development) 265 and in E (underdeveloped areas) 528 Municipal Units.
For Municipal Units included in categories A and B, studies will be carried out to assess tourist capacity, and no horizontal construction ban is recommended.
For three of the categories (A, B and C) it is proposed to create a special tax in favour of the Green Fund, on tourist activities, including short-term rentals and simple rental rooms, so that they can be used to finance renovations and infrastructure to support tourism.
The co-competent ministries admit that “many tourist destinations in Greece have an unsatisfactory level of services with a parallel deterioration of tourist accommodation, despite the slow but steady attempt to improve the quality of hotel potential. Deficiencies in general infrastructure and transport are also identified, despite the improvement of the latter, as well as breakdowns such as traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces, etc.”
They also estimated that tourism activity in the long term will expand as an economic, social and cultural phenomenon at a global level.