Greek island of Naxos prepares to receive tourists

Locals on Aegean island of Naxos are preparing for official launch of Greece's tourist season on Friday.

Greece is hoping to be a safe destination for travelers this year as it tries to revive its key tourism sector, which was battered by pandemic in 2020.

Last year, number of inbound visitors to Greece fell by 78.2% to 7.4 million from 34 million in 2019, according to Bank of Greece data. Tourism-related revenue dropped by 76.2%.

Greece is hoping to get back half 2019 visitor level. It's vowed to finish vaccinating its entire island population over next six weeks.

Greece has only recently stabilized its rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths following a surge that started in mid-February. Vaccinations reached record daily levels this week and roughly 1-in-10 country residents have been fully vaccinated.

death toll in Greece reached 11,266 Thursday, while total number of cases since start of pandemic was 371,693 in a country with a population of 10.7 million.