ATHENS – Greece’s tourism sector hopes to once again be “open for business” sometime in July, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said in an interview with BBC. The interview was held a few hours ahead of Thursday’s European Council.

Asked how soon borders will open and the country can welcome tourists again, he said that this was something that must be discussed with the health experts first but that Greece hopes to “salvage” a significant part of the summer season.

“We are in the process of setting up the protocols that will be submitted to the committee of experts and we hope that they will be able to give us their go ahead to open gradually,” the minister said.

“We aim to be able to open sometime in July. Of course, this cannot be done for all countries, for all destinations, I acknowledge that, but at least we should try to open bilateral communication and travel with some countries,” he added.

Theoharis explained that Greece followed a very aggressive approach in the sense that it acted proactively, with the prime minister taking measures to block carnival festivities even before there were fatalities, while the country also he moved very quickly to close schools and stores.

“This was coupled with a consistent education policy explaining to the publc why they need to do what was required and how this would flatten the curve,” he said.