Greece aiming for 1 million tourists from Israel this summer
tourism
13 May 2020
/ 14:10
ATHENS. Initial bilateral agreement of cooperation on Israeli visitors between Greek and Israeli governments - Greece aiming for 1 million visitors from Israel (45% increase on last year).
Greece and Israel started work on Tuesday to finalise the details of the initial bilateral agreement of cooperation on Israeli visitors between the two governments.
The responsible working groups held their first teleconference focussing on technical details of an agreement which may allow as many as one million travellers from Israel to come here once flights between the two countries are allowed to recommence.
Similar agreements are being looked into with other countries who have handled the pandemic well, like Greece and Israel. One of these is Austria. Athens and Tel Aviv airports have also been in contact with each other.
Sources that are following developments closely say that an agreement like this is, naturally, based on the opening of European borders. They also explain that there are also several other parameters that are expected to be announced today, Wednesday, such as recommendations on testing and tracking and continuous updates between countries in real time as to the latest epidemiological data.
If this goes ahead and there is a gradual reopening of borders it is believed that bilateral agreements with third countries such as Israel can be finalised and implemented.
The aforementioned agreement is part of the Smart Covid Management Group, which includes countries that have successfully handled the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic - Greece, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Singapore and Australia. The first teleconference summit meeting with the Prime Ministers of the seven countries took place on 24 April and the second last Thursday.
In the last teleconference there was special focus on tourism as some of these countries are opening or looking into the opening of their borders with neichbouring countries.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the importance of cooperation between these countries, which have had a very low number of coronavirus cases, in the field of tourism and proposed regular discussions in order to determine specific protocols.
The aim is to create 'safe passages' which will allow the movement of people between specific countries based on agreed rules. Contact with Israel is at an advanced stage as Tel Aviv, according to sources there, at present considers Greece to be probably the only country where its citizens could go for holidays due to its excellent health performance.
The aim is for up to one million travellers from Israel to visit Greece in 2020 - up from 700,000 in 2019. Greece is also in contact with the aforementioned countries as well as several others in order to assess the possibility of safe recommencement of flights, based, of course, on whether health authorities allow it.
One of the critical issues in the discussions is, of course, to ensure not only that the opening of borders won't lead to a second wave of the pandemic, but also that there won't be travellers who will have to go into quarantine on return to their countries.
Consequently, the availability of tests and all the proper procedures need to be agreed upon and specified exactly as well as what exactly will happen if soem people become ill.
Source: Kathimerini.gr
The responsible working groups held their first teleconference focussing on technical details of an agreement which may allow as many as one million travellers from Israel to come here once flights between the two countries are allowed to recommence.
Similar agreements are being looked into with other countries who have handled the pandemic well, like Greece and Israel. One of these is Austria. Athens and Tel Aviv airports have also been in contact with each other.
Sources that are following developments closely say that an agreement like this is, naturally, based on the opening of European borders. They also explain that there are also several other parameters that are expected to be announced today, Wednesday, such as recommendations on testing and tracking and continuous updates between countries in real time as to the latest epidemiological data.
If this goes ahead and there is a gradual reopening of borders it is believed that bilateral agreements with third countries such as Israel can be finalised and implemented.
The aforementioned agreement is part of the Smart Covid Management Group, which includes countries that have successfully handled the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic - Greece, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Singapore and Australia. The first teleconference summit meeting with the Prime Ministers of the seven countries took place on 24 April and the second last Thursday.
In the last teleconference there was special focus on tourism as some of these countries are opening or looking into the opening of their borders with neichbouring countries.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the importance of cooperation between these countries, which have had a very low number of coronavirus cases, in the field of tourism and proposed regular discussions in order to determine specific protocols.
The aim is to create 'safe passages' which will allow the movement of people between specific countries based on agreed rules. Contact with Israel is at an advanced stage as Tel Aviv, according to sources there, at present considers Greece to be probably the only country where its citizens could go for holidays due to its excellent health performance.
The aim is for up to one million travellers from Israel to visit Greece in 2020 - up from 700,000 in 2019. Greece is also in contact with the aforementioned countries as well as several others in order to assess the possibility of safe recommencement of flights, based, of course, on whether health authorities allow it.
One of the critical issues in the discussions is, of course, to ensure not only that the opening of borders won't lead to a second wave of the pandemic, but also that there won't be travellers who will have to go into quarantine on return to their countries.
Consequently, the availability of tests and all the proper procedures need to be agreed upon and specified exactly as well as what exactly will happen if soem people become ill.
Source: Kathimerini.gr
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