Health safety is top priority for Greece as tourism season starts

Greece is ready to welcome visitors again with health safety as the top priority in the new COVID-19 era, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday during a visit to the Santorini Island.

This year’s summer tourism season opens on June 15 with the resumption of international flights for tourists to Athens and Thessaloniki airports, later than previous years due to the epidemic.

Mitsotakis gave a press conference to international media on Saturday on the picturesque Aegean Sea island to convey the message across the globe that Greece has taken all necessary measures for the reopening of tourism after this spring’s lockdown.

“We are opening up to visitors, but we are doing it with your safety as our utmost priority. We have worked very hard to ensure our guests will be safe and stay healthy,” Mitsotakis said.

“If at any stage we are faced with a localized outbreak, we have the medical and civil protection infrastructure in place to tackle it swiftly and effectively,” he stressed.

The country was in full lockdown from March 23 until May 4 and in recent weeks is gradually entering the new normalcy, after managing to flatten the curve.

Tourism, one of the key motors for the Greek economy for decades, was one of the last sectors to restart.

As of June 15, travelers from 29 countries with positive epidemiological data, including China, will be subject to sample testing only upon arrival.

All other visitors from countries on the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) list of affected areas with a high risk of transmission of COVID-19 will, until June 30, have to be tested upon arrival and spend at least one night at a designated hotel at the expenses of the Greek state.

As of July 1, Greece will fully open all its airports to flights from abroad and to all sailings from other countries. Seven overland border points will also reopen. Tourists will be subject only to random sampling.