The European Union-funded Greece 2.0 Recovery and Resilience Fund signals a new cycle of tourism development, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias underscored in an article on Greek website news247.gr.

In a bid to “change the model and achieve the maximum possible result,” Kikilias said, the government will be utilizing more than 320 million euros’ worth of resources from the fund, “not counting the private funding,” for tourism.

He said the money will go towards an ambitious set of projects, ranging from “destination management and mountain tourism to health and wellness tourism, agritourism and gastronomy.” The initiative, he added, will “mark the beginning of a new cycle of development in the tourism sector, with benefits for everyone and with the realization through the pandemic that we live in a beautiful country that we must protect for ourselves, our children, the generations to come and the people from all over the world who dream of experiencing some of its magic every year.”

Based on the data so far and barring any dramatic changes brought on as a result of the pandemic, the new tourist season can be the new benchmark for Greek tourism, Kikilias said, describing it as a “starting point of a new era.”

This article was previously published at ekathmerini.com.