Greece lifts quarantine for more countries including Australia, New Zealand, Russia

Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced on Sunday that the quarantine requirement is now lifted for travelers from seven additional countries, provided they provide proof of vaccination, immunity or negative test results for Covid-19 confirmed within 72 hours before travel, according to greekreporter.com.

The new countries to make it on Greece’s no-quarantine list are Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, Rwanda, Singapore, and Thailand.

The seven-day quarantine requirement was lifted one week earlier for travelers who are permanent residents of the European Union, Schengen Treaty countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, and Israel, under the same conditions.

PCR tests are also required of children more than 5 years of age who are arriving with their families.

Nevertheless, restrictions on domestic flights are extended to May 10, as still only necessary travel is allowed between Greek airports.

More airports open to Russian travelers

Russian travelers, yet, will require both a negative PCR test and a certificate of inoculation upon arrival to Greece in order to skip the 7-day quarantine period. Their vaccination must have been completed at least 14 days prior to their travel, the CAA notes.

A weekly limit of 4,000 arrivals of Russian citizens has been set. Nevertheless, Russian citizens will be able to enter Greece through nine different airports, instead of just three until now (Athens, Thessaloniki, and Herakleion), as long as they also present the above-mentioned documents. 
The new airports to include direct flights to and from Russia are Corfu, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Chania.

The developments come days after the Greek Minister of Tourism Harry Theocharis’ official visit to Moscow.

It is expected that Greece will welcome hundreds of thousands of tourists to arrive from Russia this summer, as the result of joint efforts to resume tourism activity between the two countries.

Lift of quarantine prepares Greece for tourism season

The gradual opening of the tourism sector, which began in mid-April for a limited number of foreign travelers, is expected to help authorities in identifying policy gaps and omissions ahead of the official launch of the 2021 tourism season on May 14.

Once the travel ban is lifted, any travelers entering the country will be required to complete their PLF document, downloadable from the Visit Greece app and at travel.gov.gr, until the day before entering Greece and leaving their country of origination.

The form will provide detailed information on their point of departure, the duration of previous stays in other countries, and the address of their stay in Greece. In case of multiple stays, travelers are required to provide their address for at least the first 24 hours of their stay.

In this context, it is strongly recommended that all visitors download the Visit Greece app — which is GDPR compliant — for free, prior to their arrival in Greece.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

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