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Greece Takes Actions to Attract Digital Nomads
Posted On 24 Nov 2022
Tag: 1st Work from Greece Summit, Aegean, c79110c, Cosmote, digital nomads, Digital Nomads Observatory, digital nomads visa, Digital Nomads Visa Greece, Eurobank Covid-19 impact Greece, freelance work, Greece digital nomads, Ioanna Dretta, Kostas Bakoyannis, l75l, Marketing Greece, NordLayer, remote work Athens, remote work Greece, remote work trends, remote workers, tourism and travel, tourism and travel Greece, Vassilis Kikilias, workfromgreece.gr
Marketing Greece CEO Ioanna Dretta at the 1st Work from Greece Summit. Photo source: Marketing Greece.
Greece is quickly evolving into a remote work destination with authorities taking actions to facilitate the move, according to the conclusions of this week’s 1st Work from Greece Summit organized by Marketing Greece.
Government officials, company executives and digital nomads attended the event and exchanged ideas on ways to develop the country into a remote work destination as well as on the added value it will provide the Greek tourism sector.
Opening the event, Marketing Greece CEO Ioanna Dretta referred to the workfromgreece.gr site which aims to answer all questions regarding remote work options in Greece and offer guidance.
“Digital nomads can serve as drivers of sustainable tourism development, help ease seasonality, boost revenue at destinations, but also create a network of ambassadors,” she said.
Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis with Dretta. Photo source: @Pierrakakis.
In efforts to simplify procedures, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis announced that individuals will be able to soon establish self-owned business (sole proprietorship) through Gov.gr whose services are currently being translated into English.
On his part, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece was an ideal destination for remote work thanks to its climate and hospitality. “Executives of large international tourism companies have told me that Greece’s fine climate boosts employee moods and as a result their performance also.”
As part of government efforts to simplify procedures and attract more remote workers, Deputy Foreign Minister Militiadis Varvitsiotis noted that Greece was one of the first countries to regulate remote work adding that in view of global competition, “it may be the time to make our approach more flexible”. Varvitsiotis also referred ministry initiatives, including the creation a special visa for digital nomads.
Also speaking during the event was Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis who referred to actions taken to make Athens a top digital nomad destination. Bakoyannis said attracting remote worker meant the city gained visitors, investors and human capital and talent.
Earlier this year, a survey found that Greece still had a long way to go before being able to provide the work environment needed for remote employment. Slow internet, poor connectivity and lagging social and economic conditions placed Greece 32nd on a list of 66 countries on the Global Remote Work Index released by NordLayer.
Last year, the 1st Digital Mobilities Conference organized by the Digital Nomads Observatory also found that Greece was behind in terms of remote work environment but found that Athens was gaining ground as a digital nomad destination taking hands-on actions in this direction.
The policy is unacceptable because digital nomads aren’t better than Greek citizens. There should be zero tax preference for this group. Then if they come, fine. Most will see what is warped about Greek tax policies and go elsewhere until real reforms are instituted.
Greece is awesome. I work in IT and I always dreamt of living on a Greek beach and working from there for my company. I am from Bulgaria and working in Germany. I visited Greece at least 40 times. The best beaches in the world. Clean water, no dangerous species. 6 months holiday season
It looks like Greece doesn’t start in the right order to attract working people on his land !!!!
The internet in Greece has a very poor and slow connection specially in remote area where digital nomads would like to dream to work.
On the top of that, the price asked for an internet connection is one of the highest in Europe without meeting the promises written on the marketing information leaflet.
But the main problem Greece should focus on above all is the tax system which actually look like the one of a banana republic managing by crooks !
If you think you have a good deal for coming to the country and work ….think twice then because you could regret it all your life !
The tax authority doesn’t really care of the initial fiscal conditions it offers to you first but 5 years later is going to ask you to pay an enormous sum of money arguing that their interpretation of the fiscal law changed or because they changed the fiscal law with retroactive effect on few years back. You, then, will ending to pay a massive amount at least through your retirement or to your death !!! It is an obtus, abusive, unfair and dishonest system that people here manage to get use to it while living in poverty but for a foreing worker it is just unacceptable.
So as a digital nomad destination, Greece needs to tackle these 2 massive problems first : Internet technically efficient and Administrative tax system simple, honest and fair ! No other issues.
Fitting a Ferrari engine on a Peugeot 208 will sure lead to a disaster.
That is why I have developed a site for digital nomad friendly hotels and it would be nice to have a seal for such as is the case for pet friendly hotels
Starlink satellite from Elon Musk is a reasonable cost, reliable and excellent speeds but yes the rest of Greece and their service providers are almost non-usable and the ferries charge for WiFi when it really should be offered free.
The last I heard, Greece had the lowest computer and Internet use of any country in the EU… Is this still the case? If so, how do they plan on going from that to…this? Please respond as I am keen to know how this issue is developing there. Thank you.
Internet speeds of 50mbps is the norm with current upgrades to 100mbps in most areas. Not sure what you heard was accurate.
We are getting fibre connection to our Athenian apartment.
Hi . I have a house in a grec small village where I have 30-35 Mbps download and 4-5 Mbps upload . Unless you are working in post production and need to move very big chunk it fast enough no ?