Tourism opening. What will be needed? Coming out of Lockdown. The beginning of our Freedom!

May bought about a great change to all of us in Greece. Apart from it being the beginning of thinking seriously about summer. This year it also brought about the beginning of our freedom!.

After a very long winter, since November we have been in a very strict lockdown. Christmas was almost missed as no-one could get together! On Monday 3rd May the Greek government finally allowed restaurants, cafes and tavernas, with outdoor areas to open. Allowing us to sit in for the first time in six months. Like the rest of Europe when this happened everyone was very excited. Great to see friends who you had only seen via Viber or Zoom. To actually have that human contact again.

So things are finally opening up. School children of all age groups are returning to their desks from Monday 10th May. And tourism is officially opening in Greece from Saturday 15th May.

What does this mean? It means that whichever countries allow their citizens to travel they will be allowed in Greece. With just a few conditions. Greece wants tourism to be safe so has set ot a guideline of what is needed to visit us.

All passangers must fill in a PLF (Passenger location form), like last summer these are online forms to let the Greek governmnet know where you have come from and where you are staying, in case they need to trace you. Each passenger receives an individual QR code which is scanned on entry to Greece. Passengers will also need to be either. 1. vaccinated(both doses) with vaccination certificate. 2. have a negative PCR test done within the last 72 hours before travel. Most will also have a test on arrival into Greece (potentionally needing to quarantine if the test is positive). The Greek tourism minister has said there will also be spot tests on arrivals into the country.

Fortunately the quarantine on arrivals into Greece was lifted a few weeks ago making Greece a great choice for holiday makers.

Vacinations are being rapidly done on all ages and the Greek government hope that by the end of June all adults who wish to be vaccinated will have been.

So we are slowly getting back to a degree of ‘normal’. Post pandemic life will be a little different to what we were used to. Social distancing, masks wearing and vaccinations seem to be staying with us for now.

At least we still have our health and can enjoy life again. We need to be grateful for this.

Here’s to a wonderful summer. Stay safe, stay healthy and enjoy the summer sunshine.