Under the agreement, the recycling company 'Anakyklosi Syskevon A.E.' will come and collect free of charge old electric and electronic equipment, and ink cartridges and lamps from hotel facilities.
Greek citizens and permanent residents may apply for subsidised holidays in Greece, including accommodation, transport and tours, at www.tourism4all.gov.gr from 5 July 2021. This year's budget is EUR 100 m. which will be allocated to around 600,000 participants through vouchers. To be eligible, your total annual personal income should not exceed EUR 16k or EUR 28k in the case of families (plus EUR 1,500 for each adolescent family member). The subsidy essentially fully covers up to 3 nights of accommodation with a threshold of Euros 40 per person per night. It certainly helps but it should have been at least 3 times as much in order to make a significant impact in tourism destinations trying to recover from a state of shock from the pandemic and with the imminent threat of the Delta variant.
According to reports Germany's Merkel and France's Macron have criticised the governments of Greece and Cyprus for granting entry to travellers vaccinated with "unauthorized vaccines" (i.e. not approved by the European Medicines Agency) such as Russia's Sputnik and China's Sinopharm, as worries about the Delta variant are growing. The irony was that Greece was the first country to propose, along with IATA, an EU-wide Covid vaccination certificate scheme, and this is finally coming into effect from July 1, 2021.
Intrepid Travel has joined forces the the MEET Network Association which focuses on Mediterranean protected areas, to offer tours in Crete, in Samaria Gorge, Sougia and Agios Ioannis villages. The seven day 'Highlights of Crete' tour is offered to the UK market at GBP 995 per person, from mid-August 2021.
The public consultation (dimosia diavoulefsi) for the draft tourism bill “DMOs, Thermal Springs of Greece, Zante Shipwreck, provisions for travel agencies, tourism enterprises and tourist accommodation and other regulations for tourism development” is open until Saturday, June 26 at 2pm. The bill introduces destination management organizations and key initiatives for the effective development of wellness tourism.
UNWTO, the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the University of the Aegean will collaborate in establishing a research station dedicated to measuring the sustainable development of coastal and maritime tourism across the Mediterranean. The new monitoring centre at the University of the Aegean in Greece will capture and collate measurement data and analysis relating to the environmental, economic, and social impact of tourism. The Centre will also enjoy the support of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
SETKE complains that the government continues to exclude small tourist accommodation from the pandemic-emergency support programmes as there is a requirement that such small businesses have employees. SETKE explains that most 7 to 10 room accommodation companies are family-owned thus they are ineligible. Apart from family members, such small companies may typically hire cleaners or gardeners, but unofficially.
Visits to Prespa Lakes can now be more enjoyable as a new birdwatching App has been developed by the Society for the Protection of Prespa. By looking and listening carefully, and using the PrespaWings app, visitors may identify species and learn all about their characteristics and habits. The PrespaWings app is available for both Android and iOS.
Android: https://bit.ly/2XPVKHh
iOS: https://apple.co/36PyHQV
The Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) and other environmentalists are celebrating a decision by the General Director of Environmental Policy of the Ministry of Environment and Energy that has halted plans to turn protected islets of the South Aegean Sea, dubbed 'Mediterranean Galapagos", homes to Eleonora's Falcon and many seabirds, into platforms for the erection of hundreds of wind turbines, right at the “heart” of one of the last refuges of biodiversity in Europe. HOS emphasizes that Greece must harmonize its national law with EU legislation and make a pre-screening of the suitability projects in terms of their location mandatory at the very start of the licensing process rather than wait for the Environmental Impact Assessment, prepared by consultants hired by the investors, at a late stage.
A recent decision by the Supreme Labour Council (Anotato Symvoulio Ergasias) means that all Greek Hoteliers have to pay employees a minimum monthly wage of 792 to 863 Euros, according to their occupation, or 740 if they are hired for the first time. The decision extends and makes mandatory the Sectoral Agreement of Hotel Employees to all Hoteliers even if they are not members of the Hellenic Hoteliers Federation.
The Association of Licensed Tourist Guides in Greece held a protest rally outside the Ministry of Labour on 12 May 2021 to protest about the meager state support since the start of the pandemic. According to the Association, each Guide has received EUR 2,936 in total since early 2020. The Guides point out that it is far less than the monthly amount received by employees in all other sectors (EUR 534) even though Tourism is the hardest hit sector.
- Pieria: Abandoned Alykes Train Station to be converted into Ecotourism resort
- Athens Pedestrianization Plans
- New project aims to reveal Hadrian's Aqueduct - Πρόγραμμα ανάδειξης του Αδριάνειου Υδραγωγείου στο Χαλάνδρι
- Plato's Academy archaeological site to be regenerated - Ανάπλαση της Ακαδημίας Πλάτωνος
- Fifteen fewer unlicensed landfills during 2020, fifty to go - Δεκαπέντε λιγότεροι ΧΑΔΑ το 2020, πενήντα παραμένουν