Greece set to reopen for British holidaymakers from May 14th

Greece is set to reopen its borders from May 14th welcoming UK travellers.

Currently, international travel is banned as per the coronavirus restrictions in place across the nation.

Boris Johnson is expected to announce the date international travel can restart on April 12th, with current predictions ranging from May 17th to June 21st. 

Top holiday destinations such as Greece, Cyprus and Turkey are all desperately waiting for the return of British tourists. 

A senior tourism sector official in Athens told the Sun: “We’re in a race to get them, in fact everyone in Europe is in a race to get them.

“If 3.5 million come as they did in 2019, it will be fantastic for us.”

Greek tourism minister, Harry Theoharis addressed ITB 2021, the world’s largest tourism trade fair, explaining that the country had adopted the slogan: “all you want is Greece”.

He added: “This year and forever ‘all you want is Greece’. 

“For the smile to return to your lips, with the hope you will take your life back all you want is Greece.”

Currently, Greece and the UK are in talks about an agreement which would allow travellers with vaccination certificates to enter the country without the need to quarantine or have Covid tests.

On Tuesday, Theoharis said visitors from the UK would be welcomed if they met one of three criteria: they had been vaccinated, had antibodies or provided a negative test. 

Greek tourist resorts have noticed a surge in bookings since Boris announced the government’s roadmap. 

The country’s deputy tourism minister Savvas Perdios told The Sun: “After the roadmap a lot of people have started booking, we have seen a noticeable uptick.

“It’s too early to give figures but I can say over the next few weeks and days we will be in talks with all the tour operators. TUI, Jet 2, Love holidays, Easy Jet, Sunville, Mercury, Olympic will be among them.”

Athens has been pushing for EU-endorsed vaccine passports explaining it will help accelerate mass tourism.

Referring to queues at test stations, Theocharis said: “And [tourists] wouldn’t have to stand in long lines at airports.

“Certificates are just an alternative to negative testing and [the money issue] is also an incentive even if progressively, as we go into the season, we’ll more likely to adopt the cheap and fast rapid tests …. but as I say it’s still a hassle standing in line getting tested .

“With this system, we’d be instituting two lanes in airports as it were. The vaccination lane and the non-vaccination lane which would facilitate travel quite a bit.”

EU officials say we shouldn’t ‘underestimate the technical or legal difficulties’ in creating travel certificates.