Major European tour operators will be participating in a teleconference with the Hellenic Ministry of Tourism next week after the easter holidays to discuss the prospect of Greece becoming the first Mediterranean destination as soon as markets open after the Covid-19 lockdown measures.

The tourism sector was one of the hardest hit due to the lockdown imposed by governments around the world, resulting in top tour operators in Europe seeking new models to mitigate the disastrous impact the day after the quarantine ends. Greece as a market appears to be in their immediate plans.

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“There are big tour operators who have stated that they want to bring tourists to Greece instead of other countries due to the good management on the healthcare front,” Development and Investment Minister Adonis Georgiadis said at a recent discussion at the Delphi Forum.

“In the tourism sector, there will be very serious government interventions, by subsidising tourism businesses with various tools. This summer is grey, because we may have a second wave of pandemic from the fall onwards. In May we will have a comprehensive plan to support tourism and I insist that from a much smaller pie we can claim a larger piece even in 2020 and even more in 2021. There will definitely be tax breaks for tourism packages (ie tourism operators request a coordinated reduction in VAT on accommodation, catering, transportation and even temporary abolition of the accommodation fee) to support the tourism support package. This will be done in the light of a comprehensive tourism support proposal.”