Kikilias: Tourism directly related to health

“Tourism is directly linked to health. And this has been proved, as in two years we were able to rebrand the country as a safe destination, something that helped tourism immensely,” Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Friday in an interview with ANT1 TV.

“Even when there was no vaccination, we had a tourism product in 2020, that is, when we did not have vaccines and all the other Mediterranean countries were closed, because we built an excellent testing system [and had good] referral hospitals, health centers and air transport, and cooperated with the tourism sector, the hoteliers, with quarantine hotels, with private doctors who entered the testing system,” noted Kikilias.

In a period of a year-and-a-half, Greece created new ICU beds, hired over 10,000 health professionals and set up an excellent vaccination program, one of the best in existence, he added.

Focusing on health protocols, he underlined: “And this year, with our health protocols, with the feeling of security of our visitors, despite having forecasts for 5-6 billion euros in tourism revenues, these have already reached €12 billion. Although we are in November, we still have tourists and visitors on Rhodes and Crete.”