Most Greek Hotels to Open from mid-June, Says Head of Hoteliers

The majority of Greek hotels will open in the second half of June when the flow of bookings increases, Hellenic Hoteliers Federation President Grigoris Tasios estimated earlier this week.

“We hope for a better season from July onwards but everything depends on the course of the pandemic and the percentage of vaccinations in Greece and its source tourism countries,” Tasios said during an interview on Greece’s public broadcaster ERT.

According to Tasios, the Greek tourism market will be ready to open in mid-May with the hope that Greece will be in the “low risk” – green category – on the epidemiological map.

“It all depends on the flow of vaccinations… Restarting tourism is an ongoing struggle. We hope to have bookings and arrivals or else the map’s red [epidemiological] data will impact our finances,” Tasios added.

Hellenic Hoteliers Federation President Grigoris Tasios (left)

Easter Holidays

Referring to the upcoming orthodox Easter holiday, Tasios expects the arrival of a limited number of tourists from Balkan countries that have shown interest in traveling to northern Greece by car.

The federation’s president also considers as positive the arrival – earlier this week – of the first visitors from the EU and five other countries without quarantine restrictions.

According to Greece’s latest Covid-19 aviation directive (NOTAM), as of April 19, travelers from all EU member states and the members of the border-free Schengen area, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Israel are able to enter Greece without having to undergo the seven-day mandatory quarantine after arrival only if:

a. they have a negative PCR test performed less than three days (72 hours) prior to their trip, or

b. they have a vaccination certificate issued by a public authority in the English language, stating that 14 days have passed since the completion of their full vaccination for Covid-19.