‘We’ll do much better’: Greek PM sees tourism rebound in summer (Update)

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has forecast a strong rebound in tourism this summer, saying speedy vaccination drives in key markets including Britain and Israel will pave the way for tourists to return despite the current industry gloom.

Tourism, which accounts for about a fifth of the Greek economy and employs one in five workers, collapsed last year as the coronavirus pandemic sent its revenues slumping to 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion) from 18 billion in 2019.

Since last summer, when the pandemic subsided across Europe, the virus has surged, triggering renewed lockdowns and travel restrictions and pushing the region’s death toll above 750,000, with recently commenced vaccination rollouts still some way from bringing numbers down.

“I am a realist but I am also cautiously optimistic that we will do much better than last year,” Mitsotakis told Reuters.

Greece’s economy is expected to rebound by some 4.8% this year after a 10% fall in 2020 and the government expects a significant rise from the second quarter of the year. But a lot will depend on at least a partial return of summer tourists.

“Last year we were at 20-25% of what we would have gotten in a regular year. If we were to get 50% of what a regular year would look like, it’s still going to be 100% better than last year,” Mitsotakis said.

European Union countries still lag far behind others like Israel and Britain in vaccinations and the European Commission has come under fire for its handling of the issue and for a damaging row with drugs maker AstraZeneca.

But Mitsotakis defended the EU decision to centralise procurement to avoid the acrimony last year over protective equipment and ventilators, saying it had helped smaller countries get a fair share of the vaccines.

“I can tell you, as a small country, I don’t want to be negotiating on my own with big pharma,” he told Reuters. “I’m happy that Europe negotiated as a whole. Yes, there were complications, yes there were issues but let’s not lose sight of the big picture.”

Mitsotakis said he doubted Greece would have been able to obtain the number of shots it has done without centralised purchasing and distribution according to population size, and the same probably applied to smaller EU countries from Portugal to Estonia and even to larger states like Italy.

“We can argue about the delivery, and whether it was handled well but we cannot argue with the main decision,” he said.

Greece has created its own standard vaccination certificate and is pushing for a European Union-wide certification system, which could be electronic. There is still an EU debate on whether certificates should be required for cross-border travel.

Mitsotakis said certificates would not be mandatory for visitors this summer but he noted that Britain and Israel were leading the way in the speed of their vaccination rollouts.

“Essentially we are dependent on the pace of vaccination in our main markets,” he said.

“For example, Israel is a very important market for Greece and if 70% of the Israeli population is vaccinated by the end of March, it makes it easier to gradually start opening up to Israelis who have a real interest in travelling.”