According to Greek Νational Tourism Organisation (GNTO) secretary general Dimitris Fragakis Crete island that has managed to always maintain a high standard of services offered to tourists is expected to receive a large number of visitors again this summer.

In an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) yesterday, Sunday Mr Frangakis said that “Crete has always been one of the flagships of Greek tourism and in the unprecedented crisis of the coronavirus, it managed to keep its reputation at a high level and to offer high quality services to the tourists who visited it last summer”.

Highlighting that “Crete remains one of the strongest brands” in the country he stressed that the government is certain that ramped up vaccinations and ensuring there is a framework of firm rules and clear procedures will help hoteliers on the island see an increase in bookings.

“This summer will be much better than the previous one (…) the country has more weapons for a safe opening of tourism,” he told ANA.

Meanwhile, president of the Rethymnon Hoteliers Association, Manolis Tsakalakis said that based on a projection from 2019, June is the key month to achieve the goal of 40 per cent of pre Covid-19 arrivals which in 2012, translates to about 2 million visitors.