Italy Minister of Tourism (MITUR) Daniela Santanchè called for a press conference at the ministry seat to announce the availability of 1.380 billion euros.
These funds have been loaned by the PNRR, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the opening of the platform for the measurement of the PNRR promoted by MITUR and managed by Invitalia, the National agency for investment attraction and business development S.p.A, which envisages a revolving fund for tourism, amounting to 1 billion and 380 million euros for accommodation facilities which will allow the start of energy redevelopment, anti-seismic, restoration, rehabilitation, and digitization works, as well as the purchase of furnishings and construction of swimming pools and spas.
It will concern hotels, farmhouses, open-air accommodation facilities, marinas, restaurants, companies in the congress and exhibition sector, bathing establishments, and spas. “A financial leverage which has no precedents in tourism,” underlined Santanchè.
A measure that provided for an allocation of 180 million euros from PNRR resources from Next Gen EU funds, which was integrated with 600 million approved by CIPESS (Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development) and granted to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, alongside loans of equal value, 600 million, disbursed by the banking sector. It envisaged the interventions for projects ranging from 500,000 euros to 10 million euros. It deliberately excluded lower quotas.
From 2:00 pm on January 25, companies can, therefore, be able to register on the FRITUR (Fondo Rotativo Turismo) page that appears on the MITUR and Invitalia websites, check all the necessary data and documentation, and from January 30, they can download the application forms to be filled.
After that, the applicant will have the whole month of February available to present their projects to their chosen bank which will have to carry out a binding evaluation. From March 1, companies will be able to insert their project on the Invitalia platform. In this period, the applicants will have to work on the feasibility of their plans, go to their banks to present the project, and, if the evaluation is positive, they will benefit from a portion of the non-repayable CDP and the remaining portion from their own bank.
“The problem now is no longer money but the implementation of projects which must be completed by the end of December 2025. The imperative is, therefore, the land of these resources, also to seize the favourable moment of the Italian destination which in 2022 welcomed a total of 338 million of Italian and foreign tourists, still below a good 10% from the pre-COVID performance, but in 2023, it can finally overtake the 2019,” added Santanchè.
From Invitalia’s incentive manager, Luigi Gallo, it was then specified: “For the applications, parameters relating to their location (northern, central, and southern Italy) and the size of the companies will also be examined. Finally, with regard to timing, within 40 days, the bank must reply and give a targeted assessment.
“In fact, it is an operation that provides for 2 forms of facilitation: a direct contribution to the expense, granted by the MITUR and a subsidized loan granted by the CDP which will then take 60 days for the definitive answer and the green light to the execution of the project.”
