Greece: in the Cyclades, the island of Milos finds tourists

Audio 01:15

The Greek islands are once again open to tourism (Image illustration).

AFP - ARIS MESSINIS

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

This weekend, a six-month lockdown officially ended in Greece, in parallel with the opening of the country to tourists.

An event all the more important given that about a fifth of the Greek economy depends on the tourism sector.

Visitors vaccinated for more than 15 days or provided with a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours can now travel to Greece.

Some of them wereted no time.

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With our special correspondent on the island of Milos

,

 Joël Bronner

At the time of the official start of the tourist season in Greece, arrivals of foreign visitors are still trickling down.

Tourism professionals believe that holidaymakers will put their suitcases in Greece, and in particular on the islands, in greater numbers rather at the end of June or early July.

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: Greece: official resumption of the tourist season

But that does not prevent some from having taken the lead.

Matthieu, a thirty-something Parisian who prefers to give only his first name, arrived with his partner on the island of Milos, at the exact moment when the country was opening up again to tourists, after a year and a half without really traveling.

“ 

The idea was both to find the sun again, to find a natural space without too many tourists and then we said to ourselves that it was the right period, a way of getting back on vacation in advance. ,

he said.

We realize how much we had missed this form of freedom. If only to have a drink on the terrace, to listen to a concert, to go for a walk, to go to the beach ... Of course, there is always the mask, but hey. It's little things like that that we didn't realize we were attached to and that we find quite easily. We get over it pretty quickly.

"

This year, despite the roll-out of the vaccination, holidaymakers are still expected to be far enough away from competing with the level of 2019, when more than 30 million tourists visited Greece.

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  • Greece

  • Coronavirus

  • Tourism

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