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Greece enacts special spatial framework for tourism, setting new rules for investments and destinations
🇬🇷 Greece /Economy & Trade

Greece enacts special spatial framework for tourism, setting new rules for investments and destinations

From Ta Nea · () Greek

Translated from Greek, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Greece has introduced a new special spatial framework for tourism to regulate investments and protect destinations.
  • The framework categorizes areas into five types, influencing conditions for new hotel developments.
  • The goal is to achieve qualitative tourism growth with balance, sustainability, and reduced regional inequalities.

Greece is implementing a new Special Spatial Framework for Tourism, aiming to bring order to the sector's development, protect its popular destinations and environment, and provide greater investment security. Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou and Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni emphasized that the country can no longer afford fragmented tourism growth, necessitating clear spatial rules and long-term planning.

Papastavrou described the new framework as a "responsible choice for the country's future," designed to replace ambiguity with clear regulations. Kefalogianni highlighted the focus on "qualitative tourism development, with measure and balance," prioritizing the protection of already pressured destinations while creating opportunities for less developed regions. This policy aims for a new model of tourism development that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable.

the further development of Greek tourism can no longer proceed fragmentarily, but requires clear spatial rules, protection of destinations and the environment, and greater security for investments

— Stavros Papastavrou and Olga KefalogianniMinisters of Environment and Energy and Tourism, explaining the need for the new framework.

The core of the plan involves categorizing the country into five types of areas: Controlled Development (A), Developed (B), Developing (C), Early Development (D), and Special Development Enhancement (E). This classification is primarily based on the intensity of tourism, measured by the ratio of tourist beds to land area and permanent population, along with specific geographical features and protected status.

a choice of responsibility for the future of the country

— Stavros PapastavrouDescribing the new spatial framework.

This categorization directly impacts the conditions for new hotel investments. In Controlled Development areas, the most pressured tourist spots, the minimum land requirement for a new hotel in non-plan areas increases to 16 stremmata (approximately 1.6 hectares). Only three-, four-, and five-star hotels are permitted, and new tourism infrastructure in Natura 2000 areas requires approved management plans. Developed Areas have a lower threshold of 12 stremmata, also limiting new hotels to three- to five-star categories, with a cap of 350 beds for islands in this category.

For Developing and Early Development areas, the minimum land size for new hotels is set at 8 stremmata. The framework also seeks to upgrade the tourism product, extend the tourist season, reduce regional disparities, develop thematic tourism, and adapt to climate change by lowering the environmental footprint of accommodations.

qualitative development of tourism, with measure and balance

— Olga KefalogianniEmphasizing the goals of the new tourism policy.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Ta Nea in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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