The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world economy. Tourism was at its lowest last year and hotels had to close down when they weren’t raking in enough money. The events industry suffered as well, and at this point, people are scrambling, looking for ways to earn an income.
Despite the difficult year that has passed, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines have been rolled out in an effort to save the world. People are fighting over for access to vaccine and countries that have once closed their borders are once again opening up.
One country opening up is Greece. The country has opted to launch its tourist season and has lifted most remaining restrictions on movement. They have made this declaration saying, “We are putting the lockdown behind us.”
While they haven’t completely eradicated Covid just yet and are still getting an average of 2,000 daily cases, vaccines are now made available to the people. In fact, German tourists have begun flying in and from May 17, it will no longer be illegal for Britons to travel to “amber list” Greece. While they are advised against it, the decision is solely up to the traveler. There are also countries on the “green list” such as Portugal. This means that the rules are eased significantly for the tourists.
While the UK now has a relatively low infection rate, Germany is still considered risky because of reports of the Indian variant in some of the country’s areas. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has in fact reported on Friday that the Indian Covid variant could pose “significant disruption” to lockdown that’s meant to ease up on June 21st of this year.
Procedures for Opening Up Greece
Greece still has several restrictions in place. The good news is that residents are no longer required to send text messages to a hotline whenever they need to leave their homes or go out to buy stuff. Movement is also now allowed between regions and a night-time curfew has now been adjusted to anytime between 12:30 and 05:00 a.m.
At this point, a fifth of its economy is seen as dependent on the tourism sector and 20 percent of its workers are employed by it. Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis finally made an announcement on Thursday evening in front of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion outside Athens, “We are opening our tourist industry to the world.”
Tourist Requirements for Greece
Some people are raring to go to Greece now, and for those who are from a list of 53 approved countries, they will be asked to fill out a passenger locator form (PLF) the day before they travel. They have to indicate where they are staying and provide a vaccine certificate, a negative PCR test, or a documentation proving that they’ve recently recovered from Covid.
The rules set by the country serve as a precursor to the EU-wide digital certificate that is scheduled to help ease up travel by the end of June this year. As of now, flights from several German airports that include Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hanover and Stuttgart, landed at Heraklion airport in Crete. Travel giant Tui also said that they were resuming flights to Kos, Rhodes, and Corfu on Saturday and for the rest of next month for Greece.
There were also charter flights landing at Rhodes, mainly from Poland and Israel. Greece is hoping that British tourists would be able to start flying to their country from May 17, but they has unfortunately been placed on the “amber list” for UK. Anyone coming in as a tourist would be considered as going against government advice and would need to face issues eventually. As for those returning to England or Scotland, they would be required to quarantine for 10 days upon arrival.
The government in Athens has launched an attractive video that shows some prospective tourists dreaming of escaping to the sun for a natural tan and tasting “real food.” The advertisement comes with the message “all you want is Greece.” The said campaign is said to be the national tourism organization’s biggest one in a decade.
Greece Focusing on the Islands
Friday was considered to be an important day for Greek tourists. This marked their first chance to travel to the islands since it had been closed November of last year. The port of Piraeus near Athens was reported to be busy as people headed away from the mainland. They were required the green pass to travel. Museums were also opening its doors for the first time ever in six months. They simply limited the number of visitors that entered the establishment. In shops, one customer is allowed per 25 sq. m. (269 sq ft).
So far, many have gotten vaccinated. Around one in four Greeks have received it and the government is currently hastening its campaign to the dozens of islands, particularly to the tourist destinations. Ministers report that 32 smaller islands have completed their programs and dozens more with populations of up to 10,000 will be vaccinated by the end of this month. According to the government officials, residents from the biggest islands will also be vaccinated with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of next month.
On a different note, Italy said it was scrapping its quarantine requirements for visitors from the rest of the EU countries and in the border-free Schengen zone. Included in the list as well are Israel and the UK. For these countries, only a negative PCR test will be asked for. However, Italy will remain to be on the UK’s amber list from May 17. Italy also still has a curfew that starts at 10:00 p.m. However, almost the entire country has now been labeled as lower risk.
What about Portugal?
For Portugal, travelers from England and Scotland are allowed to go on holiday to several countries without the need to quarantine themselves when they return. However, Portugal did extended its state of calamity on Thursday to May 30. The government in Lisbon announced that anyone arriving would be required to take a negative PCR test before they depart the country. Some 12,000 Chelsea and Manchester City fans are flying into the country be end of May to watch their teams in the European Champions League final that’s set in Porto. The fans and supporters will need to be subjected to a series of Covid restrictions. This means that they will be flying in and out on the same day in what they would consider to be a “bubble situation.” They will need to go through a different zone in the airport and then asked to take a Covid test in which they should test negative.
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