All set for the official opening of Greek tourism on 14 May

The country's tourism industry is on track for the official opening of Greek tourism on May 14, industry players explain to RES-MPA. The vice president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Christina Tetradi, speaking to AP-MPA, speaks of an «opening message» that will only be good for the country's image internationally. In fact, she said that any arrivals that come before May 14 are a preparedness exercise at Greek airports and expressed the wish for the country to be «green» in the charter of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), but also the hope that this year will be similar to last year's safe opening of Greek tourism.

In the same vein, Constantina Svenou, president of the Institute of Research and Forecasting (ITEP), stresses to APE-MPA that the fact that «one can come to Greece in the next few days without having to enter quarantine, while at the same time it is a pilot effort that is a good thing that it is done before the official opening of the tourist season on May 14th». We do not expect a massive opening of tourism before May 14, he added, but it is a prime opportunity to see how the health protocols at airports and the travel chain in general will work.

On the same issue, the president of the Federation of Travel Agencies of Greece (FedaHatta) Lyssandros Tsilidis, after noting that the airports of Kos, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Corfu, Athens, Thessaloniki, Chania and Heraklion are the ones that will receive the first arrivals of tourists before May 14, notes that they are already in operation with scheduled flights. The important thing, in the present circumstances, is that these will be a virtual «dress rehearsal» before the official opening on 14 May. And he says that «the purpose was and is to open up the country and by no means are we negative on that,» says the FedHatta chairman. Always provided they meet the conditions (vaccination, rapid screening tests, etc.), passengers from the 27 EU states, the US, Britain, Serbia, Israel and the UAE will be able to fly into these airports without having to remain in quarantine on arrival.

The industry players note to APE-MPA that now the arrival of tourists will make sense if it is accompanied by the movement from county to county. Ms Svenou, as president of the Hotel Owners Association in Kos, also expresses her wonder how foreign visitors will come to the island of Hippocrates when the island does not have charter flights yet. For his part, Mr. Tsilidis also focuses on the necessary opening of the prefecture-to-prefecture transfers in order to accommodate the buses that move foreign visitors.

Regarding the parameters associated with the first arrivals of visitors to the country, the tourism industry, as Mr.Tsilidis says, is waiting for the announcements on health protocols. What will happen this year with the capacities of tourist buses, what will be the situation with regard to yachting and cruises, as well as with conferences, are some of the questions Mr Tsilides addresses. However, in hotels this year, self-tests for employees will play an important role, says Ms Svinou, and calls on the state to provide for the cost of these, since this is recorded as a major cost for hotel businesses. It is typical that a hotel with 1,000 staff requires at least an expenditure of 30,000 euros per month for Self Tests.

In any case, the development of tourist traffic in Greece this year is going through the uncharted waters of the development of the pandemic, the vaccinations in the main markets - reservoirs for attracting tourists to Greece, but also the policies that each country implements for travel. What is still true at this point in time, is the fact that bookings for Greece will not be “last minute but last second” as the president of the Heraklion Hoteliers Association Nikos Chalkiadakis says. According to Mrs. Svenou, on May 17, the first TUI flights are expected in Greece, while JET2 is expected in Greece on June 24. For her part, Mrs Tetradi hopes that this year's tourist season can be extended until November. Finally, Mr Tsilides is optimistic but not over-optimistic, as a result of the problems with vaccinations in Germany and France, as he says.

Mr. Halkiadakis