'We are eligible to be green-listed' – Greek tourism minister on welcoming British tourists
Greece is ready to welcome British tourists back but it won’t be taking Spain’s approach in waiving tests for UK arrivals.
“We’re not going to do anything obnoxious but we certainly want to ensure your safety,” Greek Tourism Minister Harry Theoharris told Telegraph Travel. When asked whether he considered Spain’s reopening rules to be reckless, he laughed and said: “Case in point. We will not compromise on the health of our citizens and of British tourists.
“This is not a laissez-faire ‘anything goes’ reopening – we want to make sure the person next to you is tested or vaccinated under the same condition as you are.”
Foreign visitors are required to submit a Passenger Locator Form (PLF) by midnight the day before their arrival into Greece and provide proof of a negative PCR test, but are otherwise free to enter unrestricted. Those who are fully vaccinated won’t need a test, and the paper NHS card will suffice as evidence, Theoharris confirmed.
To further facilitate tourism, Greece has pledged to fully vaccinate the population of its 6,000 islands by the end June. “The vaccination programme is moving along swiftly and the islands have been prioritised,” he says. “The small islands are finished already, the medium ones will be in May; all will be fully vaccinated by the end of June.”
Regarding Greece’s current position on the UK’s ‘amber list’, Theoharris says he was “disappointed” but feels the country is in a strong position to be promoted to green when our Government reviews its list at the end of this month.
“We feel comfortable that our arguments and data support our eligibility to be green-listed on the next round, either as a whole or regionally,” he states. “We stand by and ready with all the data the UK Government needs to make informed decisions, and we hope they will agree with us that the data will support a better categorization.”
Theoharris – who is in London this week to meet with Cabinet members and travel companies – also pointed to the “transparency” of Greece’s methodology, and its willingness to take a targeted approach to case counts and “lock down islands if the numbers rise.”
“We’ve got new arrows in our quiver in terms of Covid management this year compared to last,” he says, “particularly rapid testing, which we are using at airports so we can immediately isolate cases, not chase people 24 hours later after they’ve been cavorting with others.”
He added: “We know we cannot test everyone, but what we can do is target our testing. We’re trying to move away from a risk management approach to a more individual approach.
“So having all your data from PLF forms at the start of each day, we know how many tests we’ll have to do. We have an AI algorithm that calculates the positivity rates on different parameters; age, geographical location, circumstances of vaccination or not – all of which adjusts those testing percentages to the high-risk areas.”
As to the question of whether Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will be prepared to treat Greece’s islands separately from the mainland, as he has previously implied he would, that remains to be seen.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has already declared the Greek Islands of Rhodes, Kos, Zakynthos, Corfu and Crete safe for travel, but Greece and its islands remain amber for now.
“We have talked to the UK government about treating our islands differently from the mainland and they said they don’t have enough bandwidth or data, or both, to be able to do that with the first batch of appraisals,” Theoharris says. “But we have been in contact in the last few days to provide all the data they require, so that if they do not believe the whole of the country should be on the green list then at least they will take a regional approach.”
Nothing is guaranteed, however. The Telegraph understands that despite promising data, Greece, along with Spain and France might not be green-listed until July or even August under the UK Government’s cautious approach to re-opening – and nor could their islands.
One thing that is for certain is that paper vaccination cards will suffice for restriction-free entry into Greece until the UK’s NHS app is up and running (promised by May 17), and after that date too.
“This is mainly an issue of discrimination,” he says. “I think it’s imminent that you will have the smartphone app, but still, for people who don’t have smartphones, we certainly accept paper proof.”
As for where in Greece we should be heading once we’re permitted to travel again, Theoharris personally favours Kythnos, where he got married, and “Milos, for the beaches.”
