Don’t rush to book that Christmas trip to Greece just yet.

Australians could be blocked from going abroad until at least January 2021, with the ban on international travel unlikely to be lifted any time soon.

Australia’s Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC’s News Breakfast he wouldn’t put any guarantees for overseas trips in December.

“This is a time where, unfortunately, people can’t undertake holidays and they won’t be able to go overseas for quite some time to come,” he said.

Domestic travel may be allowed in the coming months, but for the moment people are being asked to ‘dream’ about their Australian getaway.

“There may be a slightly earlier point in time where it becomes feasible to think about domestic travel again,” Mr Birmingham escaped.

“We’re not there yet but certainly this time is a good time for a bit of dreaming, a bit of planning.

“Think about the Aussie break that you might take when we finally get to the other side of this.”

READ MORE: Travel to ‘Greece From Home’ with new platform

Mr Birmingham encouraged Australians to think about domestic travel.

“Look up your favourite Australian tourism destination, or the one you might love to visit in the future, and think about what you could do in the months and years ahead.’

Speaking about whether travellers with holidays booked in December should reconsider their plans, Mr Birmingham said it was ‘hard to make predictions’.

Meanwhile in Greece

Greek Deputy Tourism Minister Manos Konsolas said that the Greek government is currently working on a safe entry protocol for tourists coming to Greece once international travel is eprmitted.

Mr Konsolas told an online TV programme devoted to tourism that he forecast that the tourism industry would restart in 2021. Meanwhile, the Greek ministry was working on a plan to “repackage” Greece’s tourism product post-Covid-19. He said that a safety net was being activated for all tourism activity, and would include tax reductions, the creation of an international centre for tourism education and training and the possibility of theme tourism as a way forward.

READ MORE: Greek Australians honoured for promoting Greece’s health tourism sector

He said announcements would be made soon.