Athens’ Acropolis Museum Welcomes Visitors After Three-Month Closure

The Castle Museum here joins museums throughout the nation to welcome visitors this week with ready personnel and essential guidelines, after being closed for three months due to the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown procedures in Greece.

“Restarting the museum’s operation for the public will be a difficulty, as the contagious disease has not yet disappeared and health-related protective measures will certainly be rigorous,” Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the Castle Museum, said on Thursday at a press briefing.

As the Castle is commemorating its 11th anniversary of operation on Saturday, Pandermalis stated in an e-mail statement that the museum has taken all the needed procedures for the defense of the health of its visitors, and is prepared to continue its “mission.”

Boasting an unique collection of masterpieces, the Acropolis Museum has ended up being a major traveler destination given that it opened on June 20, 2009.

According to figures launched Thursday, more than 1.28 million visitors have enjoyed its exhibits over the previous year– from June 2019 to June 2020. Among them were more than 20,000 Chinese visitors.

Fee to the quick spread of the novel coronavirus, visitor arrivals declined substantially in the winter season up until the museum was required closed on March 14, he said.

Greece has one of the most affordable coronavirus infection rates in Europe. Most current official information showed that until Monday, when Greece resumed its border and a few of its airports to tourism, the southeastern European country has actually registered an overall of 3,134 cases of COVID-19 with 184 deaths.

Tourism is a crucial economic pillar for Greece. In 2019, 33 million visitors came to Greece, about 3 times the Greek population. And tourism contributes straight and indirectly about 20 percent of the nation’s GDP, Nikolina Kosteletou, professor of economics at the University of Athens, has actually told Xinhua.

The primary goal for the museum in the coming years is to boost its exhibitions and promote cooperation with other museums, Pandermalis stated.

The Acropolis Museum is offering visitors half-price entry to celebrate its 11th birthday on Saturday.