The difficulties in international cooperation to open up travel are responsible for delays and problems in restarting the industry, according to the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), Zurab Pololikashvili.

In response to a question from Kathimerini at the 66th Forum of the WTO European Regional Commission on Thursday, Pololikashvili stressed the need to suspend quarantine rules for returning travelers and noted that the WTO is making significant efforts to facilitate the whole process, although certain inherent difficulties may exist. The largest of these is the involvement of numerous decision-makers in each state, from health authorities and foreign ministries to security services, civil protection agencies and others.

Pololikashvili highlighted Greece’s efforts to revitalize tourism responsibly and safely, saying the Greek model has been particularly successful.

Earlier, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the forum that Greece’s “main concern is to ensure that jobs are not lost as tourism reopens. I think we achieved this through a number of targeted actions, ”he said.

He also recalled that the European Commission and the other institutional bodies in the European Union “came to an agreement on the now available digital certificate for Covid-19 at unprecedented speed”. He described the certificate as “a very important tool that enables database interoperability and guarantees that we all have the necessary information so that people can travel without additional restrictions”.

Mitsotakis stressed that “Safety is of the utmost importance to us and we have actually been at the forefront of a number of innovations that have allowed us to travel as safely as possible during the pandemic. This year, Greece started the debate about the digital certificate for Covid in January, precisely because we had expected that we would take the necessary measures in advance for a normal trip in the summer. “

Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis stressed that there is an urgent need for consultations to facilitate travel, both at the level of the Health Committee and by the Foreign Ministries of many countries, particularly the UK.

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