Greece’s tourism sector hopes to once again be “open for business” sometime in July, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said in an interview with BBC, a few hours ahead of Thursday’s European Council, according to ANA.
Asked how soon borders will open and the country can welcome tourists again, he noted that this was something that must be discussed with the health experts first but that Greece hopes to “salvage” a significant part of the summer season.
“ We are in the process of setting up the protocols that will be submitted to the committee of experts and we hope that they will be able to give us their go-ahead to open gradually,” the minister revealed.
“ We aim to be able to open sometime in July. Of course, this cannot be done for all countries, for all destinations, I acknowledge that but at least we should try to open bilateral communication and travel with some countries,” he added.
Theoharis pointed out that Greece followed a very aggressive and effective approach in the sense that it acted proactively, with the prime minister taking measures to block carnival festivities even before there were fatalities, while the country also moved very quickly to close schools and stores.
As a result, infectious diseases professor Sotiris Tsiodras announced zero deaths from COVID-19 in the 24 hours to Wednesday evening pointing out that it is “a great relief for us to not be talking about deaths, but about lives being saved instead.”
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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