Hospitality and tourism to get EUR 36m to keep afloat

Ljubljana – The SPIRIT agency issued on Thursday a second call for micro, small and medium-sized tourism and hospitality companies for the co-funding of operating costs in the first wave of the epidemic in spring 2020. EUR 36.2 million is available and over 6,000 companies are expected to apply, with the aid to be paid out at the end of June.

Firms will receive a lump sum ranging from EUR 900 to EUR 9,999 for the period between 12 March and 31 May 2020, said the SPIRIT agency for entrepreneurship, internationalization, foreign investments and technology.

The money is meant to help them remain in business and preserve jobs, or to relaunch after the coronavirus restrictions are lifted, SPIRIT said in a statement.

The agency’s director Tomaž Kostanjevec said SPIRIT was aware that the country’s tourism and hospitality companies had been hit hardest.

He said that at least 6,400 companies are expected to apply for funds as part of the second scheme.

SPIRIT published the first such call last November, making EUR 10 million available for up to 1,000 companies.

The lump sum was capped at EUR 9,999, with as many as 821 companies having received the aid. SPIRIT did not specify how much money had been paid out.

Two groups are now eligible: companies which have their financials publicly available in the AJPES database for 2019 and those which do not have them in the AJPES database but have had their taxes assessed by the Financial Administration on the basis of their reported income.

Those from the first group will get a lump sum at 16.5% of their 2019 costs, labour costs excluded, and those from the second group at 12% of their entire costs.

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