The dashboard of facilitation tools is enriched with a measure strongly requested by companies in the sector: the MiniPia Turismo. The regional notice, managed by Puglia Sviluppo as an intermediate body, will be published on Friday 26 April in the Official Bulletin of the Puglia Region and will be operational for the submission of applications from Wednesday 22 May 2024. The Mini Integrated Tourism Facilitation Packages, have an initial endowment of 20 million euros (resources from the Puglia regional program Fesr-Fse+ 2021-2027) and the aim of attracting new tourist flows through an offer capable of combining value-based, experiential and cultural tourism with technologically advanced forms of management innovative in order to increase the competitive potential of the Apulian historical, cultural and naturalistic heritage. The improvement of the services offered also passes through the development of the skills of tourism operators also with a view to digitalisation, a responsible approach to natural resources and technologically organized management to create synergies and exchanges between the different professions, promoting the identity of the regional territory.
Therefore a renewed tourist offer, but also sustainable because it involves the expansion, modernization and renovation of existing properties, used or to be used as hotel or non-hotel tourist facilities in line with the update of the Puglia 365 Strategic Tourism Plan The measure involves the valorisation of rural buildings, farms, trulli, towers, fortifications, period houses and farmhouses to be transformed into tourist-hotel or non-hotel facilities as well as the recovery of properties of artistic, historical-architectural interest and abandoned properties. located in historic centres, as well as the creation of sports infrastructures and theme parks dedicated to history, cinema, science, the environment and society.
As for Pia Turismo, great attention is paid to raising the quality standards of the offer, to the digitalisation of businesses, to the training of operators, to a new association between both hotel and non-hotel structures, to the support of regional employment, with rewards if the recipients are young people and women.
The recipient companies are tourism-hotel businesses of all sizes, therefore large, medium, small and micro, business networks and consortia. The support provided by the measure is a mix between a direct non-repayable grant and a plant contribution determined on the amount of interest relating to the bank loan. In determining the GSE (Gross Subsidy Equivalent), the release of any guarantees on the bank loan is also envisaged.
“With this facilitative instrument – underlined the Councilor for Economic Development of the Puglia Region – we add a further element to the attention that regional industrial policies reserve for the tourism sector. After Pia Turismo, we complete our instrumentation with this further measure which pushes tourism businesses towards technological innovation with investments aimed at both the recovery of existing heritage and the modernization and enhancement of the tourist offer. We want to promote competitiveness in tourism, as in other production sectors, and for this reason with the MiniPia we enhance the synergies between different sectors. The objective is to combine tourist accommodation with other attractive events by organizing coordinated tourist offer packages, internationalization activities, training interventions, all with a view to sustainability. The element capable of uniting all this, simplifying management, is technological innovation. With MiniPia this opportunity is aimed at companies of all sizes, from small to large”.
The MiniPia Turismo must concern investment programs with a total amount of eligible expenses and costs between 30 thousand euros and 5 million euros. The initial allocation of 20 million euros can be implemented with further resources from the 2021-2027 ERDF Pr and the Development and Cohesion Fund.
How MiniPia Turismo works
The MiniPia Turismo are aimed at tourism companies of all sizes, from large to micro-enterprises, including business networks and consortia, but the eligible amounts vary and fluctuate between 30 thousand euros and 5 million. The aims are to raise the quality standards of the offer and improve services from an ecological and green perspective, but also the digitalisation of companies operating in the tourism sector, the training of operators, the support and qualification of regional employment included female employment.
The investments must be aimed at recovering the existing heritage (from abandoned or unfinished buildings to farms, historic buildings, trulli, towers and fortifications) to be transformed into tourist-hotel or non-hotel structures with at least 5 rooms.
Productive investment programs must include eligible expenses not exceeding 90% of the integrated package; the additional expenses must necessarily include the innovation or training program, which may also be associated with further expenses, for consultancy and internationalization services, for participation in trade fairs, for interventions in environmental protection and energy efficiency. Investments relating to the business network/consortia program must be between 500 thousand euros and 2 million euros.
Applications can only be submitted electronically starting from 22 May 2024.
The proposing entity, after having activated its profile on the online platform available on the website https://pugliasemplice.sistema.puglia.it/, must draw up the project proposal which contains the business plan. The application is then forwarded to the Financing Party or to the Confidi, which, having verified the suitability of the proponent, adopts the mortgage resolution and sends it to Puglia Sviluppo for the investigation.
The measure is structural and multi-year, therefore it does not expire but will be open as long as there are resources available.
