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TUI flights to Corfu from 15 May - Greek Tourism Minister in Berlin

TUI
06 Μαΐου 2021 / 12:57

BERLIN. German travel giant TUI will begin its summer 2021 holiday packages to Greece as of May 14, the date the country has scheduled to officially open for tourism.

The announcement follows a meeting held on Tuesday in Berlin between Greek Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis and representatives of the German tourism group, Sebastian Ebel, member of the Executive Board and Thomas Ellerbeck, member of the Executive Committee.

According to the announcement, TUI will relaunch its activities in Greece from May 14 and 15 with flights carried out by TUIfly to the airports of Heraklion, Araxos, Corfu, Rhodes and Kos.

According to the company’s schedule, TUIfly will start flights to Heraklion, Crete, on May 14, with departures from six airports (Hannover, Munich, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Cologne and Frankfurt). Flights from Germany to Greece will continue the next day, on May 15, to the islands of Kos, Rhodes and Corfu.

TUI’s representatives said that based on bookings so far, Greece is expected to have “the best summer performance”, together with Spain and Cyprus.

Minister's meetings

Significant steps were taken during the high-level meetings Minister Haris Theoharis had during his visit to Berlin to resolve issues regarding the freeing of travel between Germany and Greece and the start of the Greek tourist season in 2021.

During his meeting with Thomas Bareiß, Secretary to the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and responsible for Tourism, Mr. Theoharis received assurances that the German Government is seriously considering lifting the mandatory quarantine measure for vaccinated German tourists returning from Greece.

The Greek Minister said that it was of key importance for summer 2021 that travellers are aware that they will be both welcome and safe. “Our strategy is focused on stability, transparency and avoiding surprises. We announced two months ago that we will open for tourism on May 14 and we are moving forward with steady steps in this direction,” he said.

There then followed a meeting with representatives of the German Travel Association (Deutscher Reiseverband, DRV) - Norbert Fiebig, DRV Chairman, Dirk Inger, CEO and Volker Adams, Policy Director.

As well as meeting with government officials and representatives from the travel industry, the Tourism Minister gave interviews to the German media, including Deutsche Welle, where he said, "This year we are more knowledgeable and have more tools - the vaccination programme, rapid tests and self tests. For that reason it is of key importance that all the European governments, including Germany, coordinate our efforts to support the Green Digital Certificate along with the proposed 'package of tools'."