Covid-19: Greece plans to jumpstart tourism in July
…While France announces that it will be limiting international travel this summer
Greece began lifting lockdown restrictions on Monday and as hotels are planned to open on 1 June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced that he plans to reopen the country’s tourism sector for ‘high-end tourists’ by 1 July.
"Ideally we want more high-end tourists where we can actually respect social distancing,” Mitsotakis said.
France, on the other hand, which is set to end its lockdown on 11 May, will be limiting major international travel this summer. President Emmanuel Macron asserted that even trips within Europe would need to be limited to ensure that there was not a critical virus resurgence. "It is too soon to say whether we can take holidays. What I can say is that we will limit major international travel, even during the summer holidays. We will stay among Europeans and, depending on how the epidemic evolves, we might have to reduce that a little more. We will know early June," he said on 5 May.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy now enters its second stage of relaxing lockdown restrictions and, as such, over four million citizens went back to work on Monday; people have been allowed to visit family member and close friends; and bars, hair salons and restaurants will be allowed to reopen at the beginning of June should the infection rate continue to decrease.
In Germany, new case numbers continue to slow, with the country reporting an infection rate of 0.71. As such, children were allowed to begin returning to school on Monday and the German state of Bavaria will be allowed to reopen its outdoor dining restaurants from 18 May. Indoor dining will be permitted to reopen a week later, while also continuing to abide by social distancing measures.
Slovenia, Poland and Hungary have also allowed businesses and public spaces to partially reopen, as did Portugal, where small shops, salons and car dealers were also allowed to resume business.
Many countries are still asking that members of the public wear face masks when using public transport and when visiting shops.