Greece reported 733 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on February 7. In order to restart the tourism industry by June 2021, the Greek government has put forward an emergency plan.
Among them, the most important is the promotion of the e-Cert for vaccines.
On the evening of February 7th local time, the Greek National Public Health Organization announced that in the past 24 hours, Greece has added 733 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a total of 163,946 confirmed cases; 21 new deaths and 5,972 deaths on that day.
According to reports, in order to restart the tourism industry by June 2021, the Greek government has put forward an emergency plan. On the one hand, the government is committed to starting tourism activities earlier, and on the other hand, the letter of agreement and other alternatives used by the government to restart tourism have been under great pressure.
The most important point in the emergency plan is the implementation of the vaccine e-Cert. Greek Prime Minister Mizotakis said that the certificate actually creates a special service channel for vaccinated tourists.
Tourism development has been set back in 2020 due to the epidemic, while the development plan of Greece’s tourism industry in 2021 is 40% more than that of the 2019 tourism season. Although the Greek Prime Minister is optimistic about the development prospects for 2021, everything is still unknown.
Recently, virus mutation has made it more difficult to fight the epidemic, and Pfizer’s vaccine delivery has been delayed, which has affected the initial vaccination plan.
This also puts on hold the “e-Cert Vaccine” program that the Greek Prime Minister originally wanted to launch in the EU. Therefore, the corresponding “fast travel channel” policy, which could have revived Greece’s economy, could not be implemented.
Recently, Mizotakis has visited closely with Tourism Minister Harris Theo Harris and the prime ministers of other European countries, especially those countries that can help Greece revitalize tourism.
After all, the signing of bilateral agreements is basically a foregone conclusion, and countries have also considered relevant issues. The realization of bilateral agreements depends on the EU’s decision on the travel security agreement.
According to the report, the information shows that the Greek government will insist on taking measures to ensure the normal operation of the tourism industry, which also indicates that the Greek government should pay special attention to tourists from areas with severe epidemic.
In a phone with other prime ministers, Mizotakis said that if the tourism industry can restart on time, “then travelers to Greece need to provide certain proof: either provide a vaccine e-certificate or a nucleic acid negative certificate.”
The European Commission has published relevant guidelines on how EU countries can issue vaccination certificates for medical purposes.
The Greek government also supports opening up the country according to a certain system.
At the same time, people are also trying to carry out large-scale promotions, especially organizing summer trips in advance from winter, such as Scandinavians, and activities such as domain name registration are also taking place.
Travel industry practitioners estimate that tourism may be the last open industry, which will intensify competition and test the response of travel agencies and hotel operators.
Considering that the 2021 holiday must also be carried out under strict agreement constraints, the development prospects of the tourism market are still unclear. Once the first signal of the start of competition in tourism is given, the problem can be solved easily.
On the other hand, since the outbreak of the epidemic, Greeks have been shopping online more and more frequently, and online supermarket sales have gradually climbed, which has also prompted merchants to continuously improve their electronic stores and create the necessary infrastructure.
According to a new survey conducted by the Retail Consumer Goods Institute (IELKA) in early November 2020, 25% of Greeks currently buy daily necessities online, compared with less than 2 percent in 2019.
Customers prefer to buy goods from the Internet compared with traditional consumption patterns. They will often patronize the e-stores of major chain stores and online platforms that cooperate with food stores, which will have a turnover of more than 500 million euros in 2020.
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