Greece to welcome vaccinated and COVID-negative tourists from May

People who are vaccinated against COVID-19, have antibodies or test negative can travel to Greece this summer, Tourism Minister Harry Theocharis said on Tuesday.

Tourism is a major income earner for Greece, which has led calls for an EU-wide vaccination certificate to help unlock travel.

The industry accounts for about a fifth of the Greek economy and employs one in five workers, but arrivals collapsed last year because of the pandemic.

FILE PHOTO: Greek presidential guards, wearing protective face masks, perform their sentry duty in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Athens, Greece, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Greece is aiming to kick off its vital summer season by mid-May, said Theocharis as he addressed the ITB Berlin trade show from the Athens Acropolis Museum, home to sculptures from Greek antiquity.

“Greece is ready with a complete protocol for summer 2021,” he said. “Tourists will be welcome if before travel they are either vaccinated, or have antibodies, or test negative. All tourists will be subject to random testing.”

He said the authorities would prioritise the vaccination of people working in the hospitality sector once the most vulnerable were vaccinated, and were mandating the frequent testing of employees.

Greece has imposed a lockdown in several parts of the country to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic after a surge in new infections piled pressure on its health system, but it has still fared better than most of Europe with almost 7,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

Greece already plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions in the retail sector and open schools before the end of March. In the mid-term, as vaccinations progress, the government plans to allow outdoor dining in April and to restart tourism, which accounts for about a fifth of Greece’s economic output and employs one in five people. Well, all decisions hinge on epidemiological data, a government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni told reporters on Monday.

***FILE PHOTO: The Parthenon temple is seen atop the Acropolis hill at dusk, in Athens, Greece. REUTERS/Vassilis Triandafyllou***

How the sector fares will be crucial for the country which is slowly emerging from a decade-long debt crisis but which has seen its economy shrink sharply due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Greece’s Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told a Greek radio station on Monday the government’s baseline scenario is to reopen parts of the economy on March 22.