Tourism in Greece

This summer for Greek tourism is proving tougher than initially estimated as the 15 billion euros that will be missing from this year's travel receipts from abroad correspond to a percentage that is close to 7.5% of GDP.

Tourism professionals are finding fault with Greek National Tourism Organization's (GNTO) expensive campaign on international media and social media.

They say its depiction of Greece as an open and safe destination is at odds with new restrictions being imposed almost daily to deal with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Greece reopened to more international flights on Monday as the tourist season formally got under way, with the aim to strike what government spokesman Stelios Petsas described as a delicate balance between an "authentic" travel experience and the safety of visitors.

One after the other, major hotel groups are reopening units across Greece, with the baton this week passing to the Mitsis and Mantonanakis groups.

The Greek Coast Guard rescued 36 migrants from a dinghy off the northwest coast of the island of Lesvos on Sunday.

The migrants - 16 men, 10 women (among them 2 pregnant) and 10 minors - from Iran and Afghanistan were transported to the port of Petra for a medical check, before being taken to the Megala Therma camp, northern Lesvos, where they will be quarantined.

Police in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, on Saturday announced that a 10-year-old girl who had been missing since Thursday had been found safe and well in the city's Kalamaria neighborhood.

Short-term property rentals in Greece via leading online platform Airbnb are more or less an exclusively Greek affair these days.

The island community of Zakynthos in the Ionian Sea is reeling after the murder of a 37-year-old woman and the injury of her 53-year-old husband in broad daylight on Tuesday.

The couple came under fire while on a motorcycle in the Agios Sostis region.

The arrival of migrants dropped 91 pct in May compared with the same month last year, according to data released by the Migration Policy Ministry on Thursday.

On four islands (Chios, Samos, Leros, Kos) there were no arrivals last month.

The National Organization for Public Health (EODY) is launching on Friday (June 5) a new round of testing on the residents of 16 small islands of the Aegean, ahead of the opening to foreign tourists in mid-June.