Lockdown Lifted, Greece Pins Post COVID-19 Hopes on Tourism

After imposing an early lockdown before a single death from the COVID-19 Coronavirus, Greece has begun weekly gradually lifting restrictions that shut down non-essential businesses and required people to mostly stay in their homes.

It worked so well that beginning May 4, and each week after, the New Democracy Conservative government, which ceded the limelight to scientists and infectious diseases experts whose guidance held down the number of cases and fatalities, has allowed more openings.

Starting with small businesses and working its way up to restaurants, taverns and eateries on May 25, the plan was aimed to balance health concerns against the need to restart the economy before it imploded.

Businesses must limit the number of customers in a store, require masks for employees, keep people at least 1.5 meters apart and meet hygiene protocols and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country will let tourism begin June 15.

That will be limited to 19 countries with good records in dealing with the pandemic, many of them in close proximity and driving distance although domestic flights will begin the same day and international air traffic from selected safe countries on July 1.

Mitsotakis said the tourism season will start June 15, not July 1, and won’t include mass tests or quarantines but random tests of visitors.

There were fears that tourism, which in 2019 lured 33 million people and brought in 19 billion euros ($20.82 billion) as the biggest revenue engine, could fall off a cliff, losses as much as 70 percent being predicted.

Mitsotakis said the country’s prompt response to the virus would be a “passport of safety, credibility and health” to attract visitors. “We will win the economy war just as we won the health battle,” he said.

The key points of the recovery plan:

•    The reopening of 500 organized public and private beaches with requirements umbrella stands be at least four meters (13.12 feet apart)

•    Travel within Greece and the first ferry services to Crete with services to other islands conditionally set for May 25 unless there's a resurgence of the virus

•    Parks, zoos and archaeological sites opened, including the Acropolis

•    A cut in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on transport from 24% to 13% for five months, which will lead to cheaper boat, plane and bus tickets during the tourist season, as well as a cut on tax on coffee, soft drinks and for open-air movie theater tickets

•    A designated doctor for each hotel, special quarantine areas and testing facilities on islands

•    a designated doctor for each hotel, special quarantine areas and testing facilities on islands.

•    Before boarding, passengers were supposed to have their temperatures taken while they will also be required to complete a so-called “health status” questionnaire and while on board are supposed to be at least 1.5 meters (4.92 feet) from each other

•    On ferries there will be a limit halving the number of passengers, or 55 percent if cabins are available

•    Only one person is allowed in each ferry cabin, except in the case of disabled people and their helpers or families comprising spouses or first-degree relatives in which case four will be allowed