Minister of Foreign Trade and IT Raul Siem has signed an order giving the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications the ability to grant supplementary support via Enterprise Estonia to tourism enterprises struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enterprise Estonia's conditions for support for implementing business models will change, as a result, and businesses will only need to provide 20 percent contribution to total support, not 40 percent as before.
"As tourism entrepreneurs' ordinary activities have been suspended due to the crisis situation, we encourage entrepreneurs to reorganize their business models and come up with activities that help increase their business' competitiveness and allow for them to exit the crisis as winners in the long term," Siem said.
Siem added that as international tourism is not expected to rapidly recover this year, support is needed to help restore revenue in domestic and international tourism services, and to reduce broader effects on other sectors like hospitality and transport.
New Enterprise Estonia business support measures breakdown:
- Businesses' own contribution for supported projects reduced from 40 percent to 20 percent.
- Support for small developments in tourism ranges from €5,000 to €20,000 per business. Small projects can be independent developments or preparatory activities for major business model development.
Enterprise Estonia's larger projects' support has already been launched, ranging from €200 to €20,000 per business (the 20 percent own contribution rate applies here too).
Support available to tourism enterprises of all sizes, along with development organizations, professional associations and local governments.
Enterprise Estonia is open to applications from May 21.