German ‘gift’ to tourism in Greece
Greek tourism sources speak of a “gift to the local market” when describing a decision by the German government to effectively take Turkey off Germans’ summer destination list.
The German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday decided to include Turkey among the so-called high-risk areas of the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning that people traveling from Turkey to Germany must spend 14 days in quarantine.
Although Turkey has in recent years witnessed a reduction to the number of German visitors, it remains among their top 10 destinations.
Given the successful management of the health crisis by Athens and the fact that Turkey is likely to stay off Berlin’s “white list” until September at least, many people believe that most Germans deciding to visit the East Mediterranean will choose Greece instead.
Last year, Greece received some 4 million German tourists who spent around 3 billion euros, according to Bank of Greece data.
World Tourism Organization data show that in 2019 2.7 million German visited Turkey, far below the 4.5 million of 2018 and the 5.4 million of 2015, a record year for German arrivals in Turkey.