Tourism Restart Plan

   May 17, 2021

The government is preparing a plan to restart tourism in the country. We inform you that the timeframe includes four stages:

– Monday, May 25: Yachting restrictions will be lifted.
– Monday, June 1: Camps, campsites and year-round hotels will open
– Monday, June 15: All other accommodation will open and on the same day the first stage of lifting restrictions on international flights will take place.
– On July 1, there will be a full release, for arrivals from abroad and at other airports in the country.

Greek authorities are ready for the implementation of the restart plan, since as of June 15 flights will be allowed to land to Eleftherios Venizelos airport, while as of July 1 flights will be allowed to land to the rest of the country’s airports. However, this does not mean that we will have an uncontrolled flow of tourists to Greece, as security protocols are currently being examined, some of which are essentially a mapping of flights.

This refers to the classification of places based on the number of COVID 19 cases and victims based on the weekly assessment of the epidemiological risk and the data of each country of origin of travelers. Thus there are “red” countries, “orange” countries, “green” and “yellow” countries, depending on the epidemiological data (cases – victims classification) of each country of origin of the travelers that will appear on the map of the business center of General Secretariat for Civil Protection.

For a country in the “green” category, Covid sample tests will be conducted for 1-2 passengers out of a total of 150 passengers. In category “yellow” 5-10 tests, in “orange” 20-30. In a “red” country, even half of the passengers of a flight may be sampled. To do this 15 taskforces staffed with 500 doctors will be stationed in more than 15 airports in Greece. These taskforces will consist of military doctors, nurses, doctors of the various units of NPHO, but also executives of General Secretariat for Civil Protection. When positive COVID 19 cases are detected, there will be quarantines not only for the passengers, but also for their direct contacts.

The scientific committee of the Ministry of Health has a list of 20 countries prepared by the government  in order to examine their epidemiological data.

By the end of the month at the latest, the infectious disease specialists are expected to have given their suggestions so that the final decisions can be made, on whether the citizens of these specific countries will be able to visit Greece on June 15. However, there are countries that are still in the “red”, such as Great Britain, for the residents of which it will difficult to visit the Ionian Islands and Rhodes this summer, as they have been doing in recent years.