The idea that tourism constitutes the "power house" for the Greek economy is not novel. Alongside agriculture and industry, it became a sector towards which postwar American aid was directed allowing repair works in hotels, tourist pavilions, museums and archaeological sites, tourist routes and thermal springs, with funds reaching 6.6 million dollars, through the Central Loan Committee and the Economic Development Financing Organization. The aim was to attract middle class tourists, who were projected to give a boost to the 'tourism industry'. This drive was preceded in 1929 by the establishment of the Greek National Tourism Organization, the Deputy Ministry of Press and Tourism in 1936 and an early Hotel Credit Organization in 1939, based on the Hoteliers' Mutual Aid Fund, which had been in operation since 1935.
The Hotel Credit Organization was established in 1946 as a legal entity under public law with the direct supervision of the General Secretariat of Tourism. Its aim was the reconstruction of the country's tourism infrastructures in the immediate post-war period by granting loans to hotel and spa businesses, hotel cooperatives and organizations, local tourism organizations, as well as to provide aid for road repairs leading to "tourist destinations". In 1955, the Organization was renamed the Tourist Credit Organization in order to provide credit to related businesses, such as restaurants. Resources and capital for the Organization were provided by the Greek State (in the revenues of the hotel tax until 1952), the return on loans granted by the Organization, the interest on the capital on loans allocated and bank deposits. As the hotel tax collection was not immediate, the Organization sought credit from the Bank of Greece, while its management was entrusted initially to the National Bank of Greece and in 1957 to the Commercial Credit Bank. It provided five-year loans guaranteed by the Greek State and based its lending operation on hotel mortgages. The Organization also provided loan terms much more favorable than the banking market, it gave precedence to the granting of loans to hotels that were already in operation and took into account pre-approval granted by the Greek National Tourism Organization regarding the financial feasibility for lending. The General Secretary for Tourism headed the Board of Directors of the Organization.
Even though private initiative sources contributed greater capital for tourism infrastructures than the Tourist Credit Organization, the latter had the ambition to "inspire momentum in creativity" and remained operational until 1964, when it was absorbed by the Hellenic Industrial Development Bank (ETBAbank).
In the Historical Archives of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, through loan applications and contracts, correspondence, property certificates, ownership and mortgage documents, building plans, furniture, utensils and equipment lists, architectural drawings and photographic material, the post-war effort to develop tourism is reconstructed, as well as the priorities set by State policy.
