As part of the cooperation between the Ministries of Finance, Digital Governance, Development and Investment and Tourism with the Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister, the implementation of an innovative scheme to support the North Evia And her Samos – who have suffered from natural disasters – with the Northern Pass of Evia Samos. The scheme in question, implemented by the National Technological and Research Infrastructure Network (EDYTE SA), has been well received from the first moment by citizens who want to visit these two areas, while the third phase of the distribution of intangible assets begins on August 25 of digital debit cards, including cards that not used in the first step.

It is recalled that in the new stage of the promotion, each card funds the recipient in the amount of 150 euros for a holiday in Northern Evia or 300 euros for a holiday in Samos in the month of September for accommodation, meals and local transport costs. in the above affected areas. In general, through the platform vouchers.gov.gr more cards will be issued than originally planned, as they will be supplemented by those that were not used by beneficiaries during July.

In this context, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Christos Triandopoulos said: “The Evia Samos Northern Pass action continues with particular success in the context of close cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Management and EDYTE. When the second phase (August) is in full swing, the third phase, referring to September, starts with the submission of applications from 25 August, with a non-material digital card in the amount of 150 euros for Northern Evia and 300 euros for Samos. The promotion has already generated a huge response, as evidenced by the fact that the first and second stage cards for July and August, respectively, sold out within minutes of the opening of the respective platform. This action benefits both the beneficiaries, who have at their disposal an additional amount for holidays in Northern Evia and Samos, and the local economies of the two regions affected by major natural disasters.

So far, a total of 18,075 cards have been issued, of which 12,050 are for Northern Evia and 6,025 for Samos. According to the latest data available for Northern Evia, 9,580 cards have been added to beneficiary digital wallets and 7,777 of them have been charged for at least one transaction. For Samos, 5,110 cards were added to beneficiary digital wallets, and 4,462 of them were charged for at least one transaction. In total, more than 2.2 million euros were directly allocated, which significantly supported tourism and economic activity in the areas in question, along with, of course, other relevant programs of the Ministry of Tourism and DYPA (formerly OAED).
In addition, any cards not used in the first phase in July will carry over and become available again in the third phase. Thus, North Evia will receive approximately 2100 cards in addition to the originally planned 7300, and Samos will receive approximately 800 cards in addition to the originally planned 3650. Thus, in September there will be more than 9400 cards with a value of 150 euros for North Evia and more than 4400 cards with a value of 300 euros for Samos. In total, for September, the amount that can be used with the North Evia-Samos Pass is 2.76 million euros. Our goal is to exhaust the €6 million budget and transfer the entire amount to Northern Evia and Samos, as their economies have been hit hard by the recent natural disasters. In this direction, the scheme continues in the month of October.

In this way, we help to lengthen the tourist season in these two areas and provide citizens with a significant incentive to visit them, expecting, of course, higher amounts than their equivalents provided by intangible digital debit cards. This particular action is part of the implementation of the agreed support and recovery plans developed by the government for Northern Evia and Samos, so that both regions recover as quickly as possible. We continue to work closely with all competent and interested authorities.”