Visitors staying in accommodation (hotels, guesthouses, or Airbnbs) in any of the 46 villages of the Municipality of Zagori will soon pay a cultural fee of €0.75 per overnight stay.
The decision follows Zagori’s inclusion in 2023 on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, as overnight stays there will now be considered as lodging within a cultural landscape.
A committee composed of representatives from the Municipality of Zagori and the Ministries of Culture and Interior will decide which restoration projects (such as churches and village squares) will receive the revenue from the fee, which is estimated at €30,000–40,000 per year, Mayor Giorgos Soukouvelos told fyi.news.
The fee will be included in the accommodation bill and paid by visitors after their stay and before departure.
Zagori is the 19th Greek entry on the World Heritage List and the first region of modern Greece to be inscribed as a cultural property.
UNESCO recognized the area’s outstanding universal value as arising from multiple factors, including the interplay between Byzantine and Ottoman architecture in Zagori and its other traditional stone-built villages.
Additional value is attributed to the region’s natural environment, notable geological formations, and rich biodiversity of flora and fauna.
This marks the first inscription of a modern Greek cultural heritage site, as all previous entries concern Antiquity or Byzantium. The designation covers a total area of 58,046 hectares, encompassing 20 villages distributed across Central Zagori, Tymfi, and Papingo.
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