ATHENS – Greece is launching a new initiative to support ‘digital nomads’ by facilitating their working conditions, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias announced during the Next is Now conference, in an interview with the publisher and director of Real News, Nikos Hatzinikolaou.

“We are starting the implementation of an initiative in cooperation with the private sector, first with Wind, and I believe that it will be expanded. The companies will provide better internet connection packages,” the minister said and stressed that “the tourism ministry, on its part, undertakes the obligation to cooperate with the local government in order to facilitate the residence of the digital nomads in cooperation with accommodations and catering-sector businesses, so that people can organise their lives where they will live,” adding that this collaboration formed part of the ministry’s strategy for extending the tourist season.

“We are starting at a pilot level with Ermoupolis, Heraklion and Kalamata and it will soon be extended to all of Greece,” Kikilias said.

“The visitors who spent the winter on our islands or in other destinations and worked remotely through their computer were many and this is a global trend. Digital nomads are a piece of the pie we would like in the country. It mainly supports off-season tourism.”

“It is not the only initiative we undertake but I want to announce it today, as a proof of what a sustainable tourism model means. We use the new technologies and provide an opportunity to broaden the spectrum of the tourist product in a different way,” he added.