Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
William Dunne

Greece bans Irish tourists from visiting due to poor coronavirus record

Greece has quenched any hopes Irish people had of visiting there this summer.

The country is to reopen to visitors when international flights resume on June 15.

However, the Government has blacklisted several nations due to their poor coronavirus record.

Greece has released a list of 29 countries from where it will accept tourists - and Ireland does not make the list.

The countries on the list are Albania, Australia, Austria, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan, Israel, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Finland.

Visitors from these countries may be randomly tested at the airports.

Mykonos (Getty)

The list was compiled after a study of the epidemiological profile of the countries of origin of the tourists and after taking into account announcements from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as well as the relevant proposal of the Infectious Diseases Committee.

The Government there said the list will be expanded on on July 1 and data will continue to be monitored, giving some hope to Irish people that may want to go there later in the summer.

Although Greece hasn't mentioned anything specifically about Irish tourists, the Greek tourism minister singled out the UK as a nation where holidaymakers won't be allowed to come from.

Minister Haris Theoharis told ITV News: “I think that the UK has a big difference in terms of the current medical status of the country with Greece, so I don’t think it’s likely it will be there."

People are allowed to travel freely between Ireland and Britain, as part of the Common Travel Area agreement.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland currently advises against non-essential travel overseas until further notice.

This includes Great Britain but does not apply to Northern Ireland.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.