International travel to Greece is about to reopen, and in order to make the offer to visit the country more appealing, they are offering some financial incentives.
The prime minister of Greece made an announcement in May that there would be a reduction in transportation taxes. This includes flights both into and out of the country. In other words, you will be paying lower airfares to travel to Greece this summer. The country is temporarily reducing its value-added tax (VAT) on any transportation from 26% to 13%. That means that it will be less expensive to visit the country once you actually arrive.
As they sometimes say, and that’s not all. The low coronavirus rates in Greece may make some people want to look at the country as a safe travel destination. Greek health officials had a quick response to the pandemic. As a result, they were reporting less than 3000 COVID-19 cases and under 200 deaths within two months of the pandemic starting, according to CNN Travel.
There is currently a ban on all nonessential travel to Greece from outside of the European Union. Mandatory testing is also in place and at this point, a quarantine is necessary upon arrival. On June 15, that is going to change after international flights to Athens and Thessaloniki are going to start up again. Testing will be mandatory if you are arriving from some high-risk countries, and the United States is included on that list.
Any visitors from the United States will have to take a test and quarantine overnight in a specified hotel under that policy. After the single night of quarantine, a week of self-isolation or a supervised quarantine for two weeks will be needed, depending upon the results. Greece’s airports are reopening on July 1 for international travel. According to the country’s foreign minister, an announcement will be coming later as to whether the restrictions will be lifted for visitors coming from high-risk countries.
In addition, the government is going to be providing a boost to healthcare operations in popular tourist areas.
20% of the nation’s gross domestic product is related to tourism, so it makes up a significant part of the economy. One out of every four jobs are in the tourism industry in Greece.