State tourism properties set to be privatized
The government intends to invite expressions of interest for seven assets of the Tourism Development Company (ETA), as Tourism Minister Fanni Palli-Petralia and Haris Kokkosis, ETA’s chief executive, move rapidly ahead with plans to utilize state tourism property. The assets to be utilized include properties at varying degrees of maturity: three hotels, a casino, a marina and two areas of land. The state Corfu casino will probably be the first asset to be privatized. The Xenia hotels of Vytina, Skiathos and Kalambaka are also considered to be at a sufficient level of maturity to be utilized. ETA wants the main architectural features of these hotels to be preserved, a fact which prospective buyers must take into account. The second wave of privatizations may include the marina at Neo Faliron (near the Peace and Friendship Stadium), if the tender goes according to plan and is complete by fall, along with one area of land at Afandou on Rhodes and one at Anavyssos, in Attica. However, the land cannot be privatized before consultations have been completed and the special zoning plan for tourism prepared. The government has also decided to renovate the installations at Kaiafas Baths in the Peloponnese.
