Hoteliers in northern Greece want more border checkpoints to be opened but the government is willing to open no more than four.
Deputy Minister of Macedonia and Thrace Theodoros Karaoglou expressed concern over the situation at border checkpoints in northern Greece and issues regarding the opening of borders.
Speaking to state-run news agency amna on Tuesday Karaoglou proposed the opening of only four border checkpoints that have the infrastructure needed to conduct customs checks.
He proposed the opening of Krystallopigi, Evzones, Promachonas and Kipi that connect Greece with North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey.
“The hoteliers asked for the opening of two more checkpoints where their is high traffic (Nymfaia and Exohi in the region of Rodopi that connect to Bulgaria) but this is not feasible because, in my opinion, in these checkpoints there is no infrastructure for checking,” he said.
At the same time the hoteliers are waiting for the final decisions on the opening of the borders because, as they said, last year approximately 8 million tourists came to Greece by road.
The Hoteliers Federation noted that “visitors and tourists should have done the COVID-19 test in their own countries and not have the specific procedure carried out during their entrance into Greece,” amna reported.
Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said last week that road tourism would recover faster this year and the proper health conditions must exist for the fast opening of the borders with the neighboring Balkan countries.
