The conference was attended by professionals from the tourism and food industry, as well as retail trade
Photo by KYPE
Officials of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, under the Director of Tourism Annita Dimitriadou, presented today at a conference held at the Paralimni Town Hall, its three grant plans. The conference was attended by professionals from the tourism and food industry, as well as retail trade.
As mentioned, the first plan concerns the “Upgrading of Restaurants or Shops Selling Traditional Food Products”, including those who are members or wish to be members of Gastronomy Associations such as “Taste of Cyprus”.
The objective of the project is to provide support for the improvement and upgrading of the quality of services provided by licensed leisure centers of the restaurant/tavern category, including those that are included or wish to be included in Quality Agreements such as “Taste of Cyprus” and the upgrading of existing shops selling traditional food products.
The application areas of the plan are divided into three categories, i.e. “Mountainous and Remote”, with a subsidy amount of 75% of the total expenditure of the eligible interventions, “Rural Areas”, with a subsidy amount of 65% of the total expenditure of the eligible interventions and “Other Regions”, with the amount of the grant amounting to 50% of the total cost of the eligible interventions”.
The total budget that will be allocated in the framework of the implementation of the project announcement for 2023 amounts to 3.6 million euros. The applications will be accepted until January 8, 2024 and the evaluation of the applications will be done according to the order of their submission to the Deputy Ministry of Tourism.
It is noted that the maximum grant amount, regardless of company size, it is 200 thousand euros per rolling three years.
The second plan concerns the “Creation and Enrichment of Tourism, Health, Wellness, Rehabilitation, Accessibility and Autonomous Assisted Living Facilities and Services in Hotels and Tourist Accommodations”, with the aim of attracting health and wellness tourism.
As mentioned, the aim of the plan is “to upgrade the existing hotels and tourist accommodation to modernize and improve the competitiveness of the tourist product through the development and promotion of specialized forms of tourism, specifically the attraction of health tourism, wellness, rehabilitation, accessibility and autonomous assisted living”.< /p>
The aim is “for hotels and tourist accommodation to attract health tourism, wellness rehabilitation, independent assisted living all year round, and to become accessible and friendly to people with any kind of disability or mobility problems, people with chronic health problems, for rehabilitation after surgery or treatment, athletes, the elderly and others”.
The project budget is 5 million euros, the application deadline is September 29, 2024 or until the budget is exhausted, and proposals are evaluated in the order in which they are submitted. The scheme has a pan-Cypriot scope and is divided into three categories depending on the geographical area, namely mountainous arid and remote areas, rural areas and all others.
For the free area of Famagusta there are three geographical areas, the first being Liopetri in the geographical area “Rural” with a sponsorship rate of 65% of the total eligible costs. The second includes Avgorou, Acheritou, Achna, Deryneia, Strovilia and Frenaros in the geographical area “Mountainous, Acritic, Remote” with a sponsorship rate of 75% of the total eligible costs. The third includes all the remaining areas in the free province of Famagusta, in addition to those included in the 1st and 2nd areas, with a sponsorship rate of 50% of the total eligible costs”.
The third project concerns the “Grant for the Improvement of Environmental Awareness Infrastructure and the creation/upgrade of special interest infrastructure”, with the aim of improving the level of services provided and upgrading the offered product of special forms of tourism as referred to in the National Tourism Strategy 2030.
Beneficiaries are municipalities and communities, hotels and tourist accommodations, Metropolises as well as legal entities interested in investing in the creation of new or the upgrading of existing situations, concerning religious tourism, wellness tourism and sports tourism.
Regarding religious tourism, the plan envisages the creation of places of worship within hotel units and sports tourism for the disabled. Sports tourism provides for eligible expenditure incurred on private or public sites and for which the relevant permission has been secured to create infrastructure or facilities for sports that do not burden the natural environment, such as bowls and disc golf, which can be easily removed or move.
The amount of the grant reaches up to 75% of the total expenditure, with a maximum amount of 20 thousand euros and applications are made full-time or until the credits are exhausted.
