Spain, Greece and Portugal have all set their dates for reopening to tourism this summer.
Portugal and Greece have coped relatively well with the virus but Spain was one of the worst hit spots in the world.
Now all three plan to open in the next few weeks although it's unclear if Irish tourists will be allowed in.
Greece’s Prime Minister told the Greek people that the country would open its doors to foreign tourists from July 1.
Spain’s Prime Minister said that the country would reopen for foreign tourism from July while they will also trial bringing hundreds of tourists from Germany to one of their islands in June.
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said that its border would reopen on June 15 as they look to relaunch their economy.
However these countries will likely not accept tourists from everywhere and will adopt the airbridge approach spoken about by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Given the UK's poor coronavirus record they are unlikely to be allowed fly to these countries but Ireland could.
However, despite Ryanair getting back to flying at the start of July and much of Europe opening, Irish people will not be permitted to travel for non-essential reasons for some time.
The Taoiseach said: "The position we would like to get to, later in the year, hopefully later in the summer, is being able to travel point to point between Ireland and other countries where the virus is successfully suppressed like Portugal as you mentioned and maybe Greece.
"That's now being coordinated on a European wide level which I think is the best way forward."
