In discussions on the implementation of the certificate of vaccination against covid-19 on the movement of tourists between Greece and Great Britain, mentioned the Minister of Tourism Haris Theocharis, speaking to the radio station BBC 4. During his interview on the widely watched news programme «Today», with journalists Nick Robinson and Martha Kearney, Mr Theocharis had the opportunity to refer to the opening of tourism.
Specifically, on vaccination certificates and their adoption specifically for travellers between Greece and Great Britain, the Minister of Tourism pointed out that «technical discussions between Greek and British officials are ongoing in order to ascertain whether the implementation of the vaccination certificate will be feasible. I hope that we will be able to come to some solution, at least on the technical side».
As Mr Theocharis explained, «the logic is that, of course, we don't want to restrict travel to only those who have been vaccinated. No way. However, since we already require every tourist to have a negative test before travelling, it would be a waste of resources to test every time you travel. The vaccination certificate could reduce the need for this type of test because it would be taken for granted that travellers who have the certificate have been selected by their home government or have chosen to be vaccinated themselves, so there is no need to test again and again.».
Asked by journalists about the validity of the certificates and the possible risks of forgery, the Minister of Tourism stressed that «vaccination certificates are issued by governments, by state authorities, not by various independent laboratories, so they are a step forward. That is why we have started discussions in time so that we can resolve any technical issues and ensure that we can certify these certificates. For example, the Greek vaccination certificates, which are digital, have three levels of security and can be certified by the competent authorities of various countries with which we are discussing their introduction.».
Finally, regarding the reception of British tourists in the summer of 2021, Mr.Harris Theocharis said that he is optimistic and that «the tourists who come to Greece every year from Great Britain are about 4 million in a «normal» year. Certainly, we hope that this summer, with the vaccination programmes - and the UK is one of the countries leading in this area - the situation will be much better than the current one. Coronavirus cases in Great Britain have decreased, so we hope that, both with the vaccination programmes and with the containment of the disease, this year we can have a semi-normal - if that term can be used - tourist summer».
