COVID-19: Greece and rest of EU are seeking to start the summer season

I'm waiting for some news after the EU Tourism Ministers held an Online Meeting last Monday to find some way to get tourism back on track.

Since nothing concrete has been officially decided yet, I'm writing this post just to share, more than my opinion, the thoughts of Mr. Harry Theoharis, Greece Minister of Tourism, who have been interviewed by BBC Radio last week.

The first and most important statement of Mr. Theoharis is that Greece's objective is having people coming this very summer, as 20% of the Greek economy is centered on tourism.

Click to hear the full interview

How they are going to make it, this is still to be decided in the EU: just to add another doubt on the real capacity of moving together as one...

Going back to Mr. Theoharis interview, he's stressing out how well Greece performed in managing the medical side of the crisis: the figures tell that in Europe Greece is currently one of the safest countries, and this should be the starting point from which Greece should be able to open the summer season, obviously later than the usual, but with all the security measures to ensure everyone a safe stay.

How to achieve this? This is the crucial reply, as every country is putting on a table a solution that fits its own need, but being in EU the solution must be shared. Greece is pointing on a sort of "health passport", which consists in some way of testing people before they get on a flight.

Dreaming of being on Paxos right now.

Is this the best way? Surely I don't have a reply, we must count on the capacity of our Ministers to seat in front of each other and find the best solution, because, and I quote Mr. Theoharis "this is not just the impact on Greece. It’s the impact on Europe as a whole. Tourism is 10% of the GDP of the whole European GDP. Europe is the most touristically developed area/region of the world. It’s very very important. And of course, there are a number of other industries that depend on tourism to supply the required products and materials, etc. So this is an issue which is not just for the economies of the south."