Minister Defends Reopening Greek Tourism Market in Covid-19 Times
Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis on Thursday highlighted the importance of Greece reopening its tourism market despite the difficult conditions due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
“When asked whether or not Greek tourism should have opened this summer, I have the data of ELSTAT to present, which shows a 15.2 percent drop (in GDP) in the second quarter for our country, while other tourism destinations had a larger decline in GDP, for example Spain by 22.1 percent and Italy by 17.3 percent,” the minister said while speaking in parliament.
“With the opening of the tourism market in Greece there has in fact been an increase in cases, however much less compared to countries that have not even opened their borders,” he underlined, adding that Covid-19 testing has increased in Greece.
Moreover, the said that the numbers of Greece’s 2020 tourism performance will show a “positive sign” at the end of the year.
“Ιt will certainly be well above the ‘zero point’ from which we started from (after the lockdown). Maintaining the balance between health and the opening up of our country is an extremely difficult task, for which the Greek government is fighting hard every day,” Theoharis stressed.
“We never said this year would be good, easy or the same as last year. We did not say that we will return to a previous normality, but that we will have to adapt to a new one,” he added.
ΠΗΓΗ GTP
