The five years provided as a grace period for compliance of hotel units with the new framework for the operation of hotels and tourist accommodations, which came into effect with the enactment of relevant legislation in 2019, have not proven sufficient to secure the required licenses.
In order for the accommodation units not to operate illegally, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism has submitted a relevant bill to the Parliament to extend the transitional period available to hotel units to obtain the required licenses.
The Parliament seems to consent to this direction due to the time-consuming procedures required to obtain the documents and certificates necessary for license issuance.
The entire issue was re-examined yesterday by the Parliament’s Trade Committee, which appears to facilitate the hotel industry by approving the bill amending the Law on the Regulation of the Establishment and Operation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations of 2019, with some amendments, as indicated by the committee’s president, Kyriakos Chatzigiannis.
According to information from Phileleftheros, the Parliament is expected to propose an amendment to receive updates every six months on the licensing progress of hotel units operating before the new legislation, and barring unforeseen circumstances, intends to remove the provision of the bill for an extension beyond two years.
Currently, only 60 out of 816 operating units (7.35%) hold operating licenses from the Deputy Ministry of Tourism under the new legislation, with the rest essentially covered by the transitional provision of Article 18 of the 2019 legislation, which, however, expires on March 15, 2024.
Article 18 of the existing legislation provides that “any person who, at the date of entry into force of this Law, operates a hotel or tourist accommodation without an operating license under the Hotels and Tourist Accommodations Law, is required within five (5) years to obtain a hotel or tourist accommodation operating license, in accordance with the provisions of this Law and the Regulations issued pursuant thereto.”
Based on the proposals being put forward, it is envisaged that the transitional period of Article 18 will be extended for all natural or legal persons operating hotels or tourist accommodations until the end of 2025 or even until the end of 2027, provided that by the end of 2025, all necessary documents have been submitted to the Deputy Ministry of Tourism.
The bill will be presented to the Plenary on March 14.
It is noted that the extension of the transitional period was deemed necessary because during the period 2013-2018, due to urban planning incentives aimed at stimulating development, there were extensive renovations and expansions in hotels, resulting in the need to obtain new certificates and licenses from various government services, necessary for licensing by the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, with the whole process of obtaining the required documents being time-consuming.
On March 14, a proposal for a law amendment is expected to be submitted to the Plenary of the Parliament, once again amending the Law on the Regulation of the Establishment and Operation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, by adding a new category of hotels, outdoor hotels, to the legislation, in order to facilitate the formulation and implementation of policies for mountain resorts.
The proposal of the President of the Trade Committee, Kyriakos Chatzigiannis, which, after consultation, as we are informed, was shaped to have the support of all its members, will be officially presented to the Parliament tomorrow, Thursday.
Its purpose is to amend the Law on the Regulation of the Establishment and Operation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, so as to introduce the new term “outdoor hotel” and its definition.
“With the proposed regulation, the tourist product is enriched with a new additional category of product, that of the ‘outdoor hotel’, which can be developed within the cores of communities,” and additionally, “with the categorization of these developments, the state has the possibility to develop a development policy for these units based on incentives, taking into account their special urban characteristics,” will be mentioned in the explanatory memorandum of Chatzigiannis’s proposal, with him stating yesterday that with the introduction of the category of outdoor hotels, alongside urban hotels and the general category, there will be flexibility to implement different policies for each category of hotels.