Greece sees July tourism reboot
ATHENS: Greece’s prime minister on Monday said the country’s vital tourist season could conditionally kick off in July as coronavirus lockdown restrictions begin to ease for the first time in six weeks.
“Best-case scenario is Greece is open for business July 1, and we’re working towards that,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told CNN. Mitsotakis said Greece would accept visitors only under “very specific protocols”, possibly with pre-travel testing agreed at the EU level, and “provided that the global epidemic is on a downward path.” Greece has officially announced more than 2,600 infections and 146 deaths, but the country of 11 million has so far carried out only around 81,000 tests.
With the loss of critical tourism income, the Greek economy could contract by as much as 10 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Greek finance ministry says the downturn can be limited to 4.7 percent, but unemployment could hit nearly 20 percent.
Under remaining lockdown rules, open-air archaeological sites and theme parks are not set to reopen until May 18, followed by year-round hotels and restaurants on June 1.
But many operators-especially restaurant owners and hoteliers-see the move as futile owing to strict spacing concerns. In most cases, people are supposed to be at least 1.5 metres (five feet) apart.
“We can’t accommodate more than four people at a time. That’s 11 customers per day maximum,” said Marie Lavigne, co-owner of a hair salon in the affluent Athens district of Kolonaki.
Nikos Kontos, owner of an Athens electronics store, noted that he had no high expectations as “many Greeks have been furloughed and have neither the means nor the inclination to go shopping.”
Monday’s reopening benefitted about 10 percent of small businesses including hair salons, bookstores, opticians and florists. Churches were also reopened but only for solitary prayer.
The remaining retail stores will follow on May 11, as the government cautiously evaluates the situation on a weekly basis. “This is where the difficult phase starts. Returning to a new normality seems like coming out of a labyrinth,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Monday.
Mitsotakis said Greeks had shown “discipline and a very high sense of responsibility and solidarity” but now must be “doubly careful”. “As we now move on to the next phase... individual responsibility becomes even more important,” the PM said earlier in the day as he briefed President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. Also Monday, the government said virus testing would be boosted with mobile teams that will prioritise vulnerable, closed facilities such as prisons and homes for the elderly.
They will also help track contacts of confirmed virus cases, he said. The first 25 testing teams-which will eventually grow to 500 — began operating Monday.