It is self-evident that the country’s economic recovery is not possible without growth, without new high-quality investments in tourism that will produce added value to the offered tourism product and generate higher employment.
However, it is noted that new investments in tourism focus mostly on acquiring and refurbishing existing facilities or changing the use of existing buildings and only secondarily on developing new investments from scratch. The cause is none other than the accumulated adverse experiences of prospective investors over the years due to permit-related bureaucracy and the absence of spatial planning (Afantou, Kassiopi, Hellenikon, etc.). SETE insists on the pressing need for a simple and investor-friendly spatial (land-use) planning framework down to the level of spatial planning within municipal jurisdictions (the so-called Local Spatial Plans) prescribing specific land uses, ensuring the needed legal certainty for investors and as well as protection of the environment.
SETE has requested in writing the collaboration with the competent ministries of Tourism and Environment & Energy and hopes there will be a meaningful response in order to establish a positive institutional framework through the currently developed Spatial Land-Use Plan for Tourism and other urban-planning initiatives it has proposed; the aim is to provide non-tangible incentives and reduced bureaucracy for attracting new tourism-related investments which will help strengthen economic growth, employment and the tourism-related competitiveness of the country.
