Greece to officially reopen tourism season in June, PM says

Just when we thought all of our summer holiday hopes were dashed, Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said the country’s tourist season will officially kick off in June, just in time for the peak period.

Mitsotakis said in an address on Wednesday: “The tourism period begins on June 15, when seasonal hotels can reopen.

“Let us make this summer the epilogue of the [COVID-19] crisis.”

As well as hotels reopening in mid-June, the PM added that international flights to popular locations would resume in July.

At present, Greece has had just 2,850 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 166 deaths. The tourism industry is a vital part of the Greek economy, which could be why the country is reopening its borders in time for summer.

Mitsotakis added: “We will win the economy war just as we won the health battle.”

Greece is also making travel cheaper for tourists this summer, by temporarily reducing value-added tax (VAT) on all flights, rail travel and bus journeys by 11 per cent – down from 24 per cent to 13 per cent.

It says it will also offer sample coronavirus tests to incoming tourists but hasn’t confirmed if this will be available to all.

The announcement comes as EU tourism ministers said they would do ‘whatever it takes’ for ‘a quick and full recovery of European tourism’. Yesterday, Italy announced it would allow all airports to reopen from June 3 to both domestic and international flights.

This morning, easyJet also announced it would start flying from June 15 on a small number of routes with ‘high customer demand’.