Travel company TUI has openly threatened the Greek government that it would cancel all its trips to Greece due to the 36-hour quarantine Athens reportedly wanted to impose on tested tourists, German daily BILD reports on Wednesday.
Reason for the threats was the original Greek plan that tourists tested in COVID-19 upon arrival should be placed in a 36-hour quarantine, awaiting for the test results.
TUI insisted that Greece abandons the provision. Finally, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis withdrew it, the daily reports.
“According to exclusive information from BILD, leader of the tourist market, TUI, threatened to cancel all her trips immediately. Reason was the controversy over an extreme quarantine directive of the Greek government. (ss. based on the plan). Randomly selected visitors would be tested at the airport for COVID-19 and then had to enter quarantine for 36 hours until the results were out,” BILD reported on its website.
“But how would tourists spend 36 hours in quarantine? Hotels should create separate spaces so that customers do not have contact with others. They would have to take care of their own food, and they would not be allowed to leave the hotel,” the German daily notes.
According to the BILD claim, “the TUI’s manager was negotiating on Monday with the Greek Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis. The travel company’s message was: With such a regulation we do not send customers to Greece. TUI has openly threatened to cancel all trips. The minister rushed to call Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He eventually withdrew. The quarantine regulation was withdrawn at the last minute and the holidays in Greece were saved.”
Εκπρόσωπος της TUI επιβεβεβαιώνει στη DW ότι ο όμιλος μετέφερε στην ελλ. κυβέρν. την αγωνία και δυσαρέσκεια των πελατών της για την αρχικώς προβλεπόμενη καραντίνα των 36 ωρών για όσους περιμένουν αποτελέσματα δειγματ. τεστ. Οι ίδιοι οι πελάτες ήταν αυτοί που απειλούσαν με ακύρωση
— DW Greek (@dw_greek) July 1, 2020
A TUI spokesman confirmed to the Greek Program of the Deutsche Welle, that the company transferred to the Greek government “the anxiety and dissatisfaction of its customers for the initially provided quarantine of 36 hours for those who are waiting for sample test results.”
It was “the customers themselves who were threatening to cancel their trips,” the TUI spokesman reportedly said. He added that “the provision has finally been withdrawn and so even those who take the test can move freely and continue their journey.”
So far, there has been no comment from the Greek side.
For both sides, the decisive factor was certainly the Money. TUI customers would probably claim some kind of refund from TUI for having “wasted one and a half day from their holidays in confined in a room,” TUI would possible need to change its package prices For sure, Greece would be the big loser if TUI would withdraw from the Greek market. And it was anyway much too late for any changes on the TUI side.
Greece, however, could have issued its instructions for tested tourists much earlier and not a few hours before the July 1. It is its “heavy industry”, after all.
PS It is not known whether the threats were shot before or after TUI and Greece signed a “strategic agreement” on June 30.
All tourism travel world-wide shiuld have neen banned this summer. Business & emergency air travel, Only. That would stop the spread of covid19 until we get an effective vaccine. But people don’t want to face the hard facts and change their ways. Tourism is the worst possible industry both for the GDP of any country and for it’s natural environment. It reduces countries to being beggar, client-countries of the wealthier countries, which is what Greece is. Greece needs productive industries that are not dependent on tourists.
And what if we will not have a effective vaccine next year? Ban all flights until every airline shuts down?
Productive industries is a good way to go but a far better way is diversification.
This is a company has only one interest and that is not it’s customers, takes money for Holidays and flights then three days later cancels everything you paid for but keeps your money for up to 28 days. They are desperate for money and will do anything to get it and Governments do nothing, they still allow them to trade and offer holidays or flights even to countries that have a 14 day isolation program in place for arrivals.
should not let a tour company(german)dictate your status on protecting the greek people from covid 19.they need you as much as you need them.
Indeed the big tour companies like TUI are only interested in profits and their own good reputation. Thats how capitalism works. So is the Greek government doing PR since weeks to promote tourists to come to Greece this summer. Changing regulations and putting new possible quarantine measures in place only days before they start working though is a big mistake by the Greek government if they want to attract tourism into the country. Not even knowing if you will be tested and put into quarantine before arrival is just such a joke. It is also very naive to think that these measures in the long run will keep covid19 away from Greece if you open the borders for tourism at the same time. Good luck with this strategy and in the meantime I hope most tourists will stay away from spending holidays in Greece.