Greece intends to welcome tourists in July, says tourism minister [Video]

Greece’s tourism sector hopes to be “open for business” sometime in July, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said in an interview with BBC on Thursday.

Theoharis was asked how soon the country will be able to welcome tourists again, saying that this was something that must be discussed with the health experts first. Despite this, Theoharis hopes to “salvage” a significant part of the summer season.

“We are currently in the process of setting up the protocols that will be submitted to the committee of experts and we hope that they will be able to give us their go ahead to open up gradually,” he explained.

“We need to aim some time in July to be able to open up. This cannot be with every source country, with every destination, I acknowledge that, but at least we have to try to open with some countries the bilateral communication and travel.”

Theoharis explained that Greece followed a very aggressive approach in tackling the virus by acting proactively, even before there were fatalities.

“This was coupled with a consistent education policy explaining to the public why they need to do what was required and how this would flatten the curve,” he said.

The Greek government plans to start gradually lifting the lockdown restrictions in the beginning of May, in a process expected to last until end of June.