Thirteen Greek islands in the Aegean Sea have been marked as dark red on the COVID-19 map compiled by the EU's disease control agency ECDC, which is now advising against all non-essential travel to and from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upgrade of the risk level on Thursday applies to popular travel destinations such as Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Swedish travel companies Tui and Apollo are following the recommendations of Swedish authorities and will continue to fly to the affected islands until the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a warning, they tell TT. Tui currently has 4,500 Swedish tourists in Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greek authorities had hoped to attract tourists back this summer after the loss-making year of 2020. Despite strong visitor numbers in June, it is unclear how the rest of the season will develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dark red zones mark the areas with the worst COVID-19 cases. The aim is to help EU countries decide on testing and quarantine rules for travel. Last week, the risk level for Crete, Greece's largest island, was raised to dark red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 We are waiting and seeing how the market will react, says Manolis Markopoulos, chairman of the hotel industry organization on Rhodes, after the ECDC's announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n