Covid-19 testing at airports should be the “top priority” in restarting tourism, according to former Greek tourism minister Elena Kountoura.
Greece is poised to reopen to tourists on June 15 with flights to resume by July 1, although only tourists from countries with low rates of virus infection will be permitted.
But Kountoura, now a member of the European Parliament, warned: “We don’t know what will happen when travel starts to Greece from July because we only have sample testing.”
She told an International Tourism & Investment Conference (ITIC) online summit on Financial Strategies for Recovery: “It is important not only to protect the people travelling to a destination but also the people in the destination.
“Until an effective cure can be found we need to test.
“It’s important to know before you travel. If you are sick, you don’t travel. The top priority for me is testing.”
Kountoura argued: “We managed the crisis well in Greece, but we test all the flights from outside and they show a lot of positives [among arriving passengers, and] we put them in quarantine.”
She added: “I fear also the asymptomatic [Covid-infected arrival] is a problem.”
Some people infected with the coronavirus do not display symptoms but may pass on the infection to others.
Kountara also warned against travel companies in major source markets pressuring destination hotels to slash prices.
She told the summit: “There will be a lot of blackmail to put down prices, as we see always when there is a recession. That is a big risk.
“Businesses need to stay alive and avoid bankruptcies. If businesses don’t have access to funds, we are going to have a huge problem.”
She called for businesses to be kept alive “with subsidies, not more loans”, warning: “If businesses go bankrupt, they will lay off workers. It’s a vicious cycle.
“It is a battle between protecting health and re-opening the economy and we have to do both.”