Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Tuesday raised the issue of facilitating the movement of citizens between Greece and the United Kingdom at a meeting with British Transport Under-Secretary Robert Courts in London.

According to a Greek Tourism Ministry announcement, Kikilias said this would benefit both British visitors coming to Greece and Greek businesspeople and students traveling to the UK.

Courts told Kikilias that as of Monday all countries were removed from the UK’s red list – under the British “traffic-light” system for travel – and that any return of a country to the list will be influenced by possible Covid-19 variants and not the number of infections.

They also discussed the issue of cruises, which are a top choice for British travelers.

Kikilias informed Courts that Greece has lifted restrictions for arrivals from the Turkish ports of Istanbul and Kusadasi, taking into account that the specific ports satisfy European protocols and requirements, with the aim of facilitating cruise tourism, as well as issues raised by British tour operators.

Kikilias also met with Saudi Arabian Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb.

This article was first published on ekathimerini.com.