Harry Theoharis said the country’s relative success controlling the impact of coronavirus made him confident it would be able to safely reopen its tourist market within weeks.
“We do want people to come to Greece,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “You should feel safe, Greece is a safe country, and in many cases much safer I’m sorry to say than your own country.
“It is very likely that we will have some requirements before travelling. This will be done so that everyone has peace of mind … that they will not come in contact with, as much as humanly possible, other people infected withthe virus.”
He was speaking ahead of a video summit of European Union tourism ministers today at which ways of reopening the continent’s holiday market were due to be discussed.
The UK currently advises against all non-essential travel overseas.
Europe takes it's first steps out of Coronavirus lockdown
Meanwhile Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced its hotels would begin reopening from next week, along with shopping centres. Its government is considering reopening pre-schools from next Wednesday. The country of 38 million has reported 12,415 cases and 606 deaths.
There was less encouraging news elsewhere in Europe. Germany’s Ifo Institute, an economic advisory body, said that more than half of companies in the country believe they can survive for only six months or less. It described the figures as worrying and an indication of a wave of insolvencies to come.
Italy’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch to one notch above junk in the wake of the government’s prediction of an eight per cent contraction in national GDP this year.
The negative forecasts follow a warning yesterday by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez that his nation is facing a recession of “extraordinary scale” because of the impact of the virus.
France will make face masks compulsory on public transport and in secondary schools when it starts easing its lockdown on May 11, prime minister Edouard Philippe has announced.
