Greek authorities, hotels and beaches brace for summer impact

This year’s summer season will be unlike any other and all stakeholders are doing their best to adapt to unprecedented circumstances

Greece is entering into its final stages of preparation for the official opening of its post-corona summer season 1 July. This year’s summer will be an entirely new and different experience compared to previous ones and authorities and businesses are eager to do their best to adapt to a dramatic change in circumstances.

Rebooting tourism – a priority for Greek authorities

With tourism being responsible for a large chunk of Greece’s GDP, it should come as no surprise that the country’s government has been one of the main drivers behind a push for the reopening of borders and for EU-wide guidelines for safe tourism.

Thanks in large part to Greek efforts and contributions, the EU’s institutions recently unveiled its rules, regulations and recommendations for authorities and businesses that will be greeting summer tourists this year.

On a more general level, the EU’s guidelines foresee a return to normal free cross-border travel for Europeans hailing from countries with similar epidemiological situations – based not on distance or means of travel, but on a country’s success in dealing with the disease within its own borders. That on its own should guarantee a substantial amount of health security for locals and tourists in Greece, as the country went through one of the best handlings of COVID-19 in all of Europe.

Yet, further requirements will also be put in place – namely aimed at enforcing social distancing rules and adhering to strict hygienic requirements. Such requirements are especially important in hotels, which will all be required to follow new guidelines and protocols, adapted to an extraordinary situation. They include:

• Designing infection action plans for quarantining in case an infected guest is discovered on a hotel’s premises
• Training of staff to respond to COVID-19-related emergencies
• Decreasing the presence of staff on hotel premises as much as possible – those who can work from their homes should be doing so
• Providing adequate information to guests
• Creating policies that ensure social distancing and the keeping up of hygienic requirements
• Implementing specific control and prevention measures in all levels of work at hotels and restaurants so as to reduce the chance of infection

By adhering to the advice given by national and European authorities, not only will hotels be able to operate seamlessly, but they will also offer their guests a what is hopefully a once-in-a-lifetime experience of a post-lockdown summer holiday.