Tui halts trips to Zante resort of Laganas after virus clusters

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Travel company Tui has canceled all holidays to a party resort on a Greek island because of customers failing to follow coronavirus safety measures.

Acording with bbc.com, Tui said it would no longer be offering trips to the resort of Laganas, on Zakynthos, from Thursday.It comes after six clusters of cases were linked to flights from the island.

The UK government is under pressure to reconsider England’s quarantine rules for Greece, after both Scotland and Wales introduced their own measures.

Andrew Flintham, managing director of Tui UK and Ireland, said anyone who had booked to go to Laganas after 3 September would be refunded for the cancellation, but that trips to all other resorts on Zakynthos would continue as normal.

“Laganas is a popular resort with young people who traditionally holiday in large groups of friends,” he said.

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“The health and safety of our colleagues and customers is our primary concern and recent cases shows that some customers are not following social distancing and Covid safety measures.

“It is therefore the right thing to do to protect and reduce a now identified potential risk to others by no longer offering holidays to this specific resort.”
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “With Scotland’s relatively low infection rate, importation of new cases from Greece is a significant risk to public health.”

Haris Theoharis, Greece’s tourism minister, said the country in general had a lower infection rate than the UK and it was taking targeted measures which have previously been successful in dealing with virus hotspots, such as reducing numbers in bars and restaurants.

“We’re doing everything in our power to ensure that every person that comes from the UK is kept safe in Greece,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

But he said it was also important for visitors to “have some restraint” and understand that tourism was different during the pandemic, with a need to follow social distancing rules and wear masks when required.

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