Disbursement of zones with controlled tourism development

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According to the law number 15200/2016 (Government Gazette 2877/9-9-2016) with the decision of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Tourism, the law number 2647 Ministry of National Economy 538866/ΕΙΔ.135/GNTO/14-11-1986 (Β΄/797) of the Decree titled “Measures for controlled tourism development and upgrading the tourist offers in the country’s regions. Defining the zones of Tourism Development Control” was abolished,  with all the relevant amendments and applications.

The annulled decision ensured that accommodation only of class AA’ and A’ could be established in the zones of controlled Tourism Development, thus prohibiting both the establishment and the expansion of main and auxiliary accommodation (except for the establishment of additional beds of categories AA’ and A’, that does not exceed the allowed maximum capacity of the provided services), as well as the conversion of existing buildings into tourist accommodation other than of categories AA’ and A’, and the revision or amendment of the EOT approved architectural plans of the buildings and auxiliary accommodation unless it is for guest rooms of categories AA’ and A’ and/or public areas.

Clearly, this created numerous issues for hotels and other types of accommodation of lower categories, as they could not upgrade or renew their operation Mark, if it expired, etc.

Given the version of the law number 216/2015 Υ.Α (Ν.4276/2014) under which all the Special Identification Marks issued prior to the publication would automatically cease to apply on 31/12/2017, the date until which all the hotels were required to have a category certification, according to the provisions of the new MD, the annulled decision would in fact make the operation of many accommodation types illegal.

The decision made by the Deputy Minister is based, among other things, on the outdated nature of the rules and the content of the annulled decision that was incompatible with contemporary travel and tourism trends.