Last Updated on May 8, 2020 by WFD
Holidays to Greece could resume in July as the country is following Dubai’s footsteps of reopening its borders to tourist arrivals.
By enforcing a strict early lockdown and assessing its current situation of the pandemic, the south-eastern European country believes July 2020 will be the right time to welcome some tourists again into the country.
Earlier this week, the country begun lifting its six weeks imposed lockdown, paving way for hairdressers, florists, and bookstores to operate, with additional measures laid down for hotels to start operating by June.
In an interview with CNN, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of Greece said this year’s tourism experience during the summer may be slightly different from what holidaymakers have been experiencing in the past years.
According to him, in order to control the spread of COVID-19 at that time, drinking bars may not be allowed to operate and while the country will still be observing social distancing protocols, tight crowds may not be allowed to converge at one particular place.
He said despite those setbacks, “tourists can still get a fantastic experience in Greece.”
Prime Minister Mitsotakis agrees to the fact that Greece opening its borders to vacationers inevitably means receiving people potentially carrying coronavirus. He, however, hopes the current testing regimes when international travellers arrive in Athens, the capital city of Greece, can be enhanced to reduce the risk.
“I would assume that people will be tested before they get on a plane, not after they arrive here. They can only get on the plane with a negative test, or with a positive antibody test,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said.
If all falls into place, he hopes Greece can start welcoming tourists by July 1.
Greece, a country of 11 million people, has so far registered 2,626 cases of coronavirus, with 144 deaths, far fewer than many other European countries.