Greek island of Naxos prepares to receive tourists

Locals on the Aegean island of Naxos are preparing for the 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 the pandemic in 2020.

Last year, the 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 the 2019 visitor level. It's vowed to finish vaccinating its entire island population over the 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.

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