Last week, the ministries of Environment and Energy, and Tourism, presented the long-awaited spatial framework for tourism. Its preparation was assigned in May 2018, with a deadline of 18 months (i.e. by the end of 2019). After successive extensions, the framework was delivered in March 2021, but the Ministry of Environment continued to submit new observations to the contractors.
Finally, the text was submitted by the Ministry of Tourism to a closed consultation in July 2024 – that is, the comments of the interested parties are sent to the Ministry of Tourism, but are not posted publicly. According to what the two ministers announced, the plan will be submitted again in a closed consultation for two weeks, hoping to ratify it by the end of June.
What does it foresee?
The framework classifies Greece’s 1,035 municipal units into five categories, depending on their degree of tourist development, without taking into account short-term rental beds, which are now the same as those of hotels.
In the most touristic areas, the framework provides for an increase in the minimum land plot requirements and a limitation – on the islands – of the maximum number of beds (e.g. 16 acres and 100 beds in the most developed areas, 2.9 acres and 350 beds in the developed areas, and 1.9 acres in all others, without any other limitation). A limit on the number of beds is also set on medium-sized islands, while on medium-sized and small islands it is stipulated that large organized tourist developments will be carried out with half the building coefficient.
