From Europe
▶ Italy reopens to tourists
Other countries, such as Belgium and Britain, are still advising against, or forbidding, all nonessential travel abroad.
In response to perceived anti-Italian sentiment, Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio has warned countries not to treat Italy “like a leper.”
He said Saturday he would be traveling to Germany, Slovenia and Greece to persuade them Italy is safe for foreign tourists.
Arrivals in Italy from Europe will not be required to self-isolate unless they have recently traveled from another continent.
Too expensive
Italy’s lockdown has had a particularly devastating effect on the tourism sector, which amounts to some 13 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Historic sites were shut, restaurants closed and hotels were used to care for coronavirus sick.
Restaurants, cafes and beach establishments have slowly reopened over the past two weeks – although the government has said it reserves the right to impose localized lockdowns if it sees contagion numbers rise.
But only 40 of Rome’s 1,200 hotels have reopened, the Corriere della Sera newspaper said Monday, and just a dozen in Milan. It costs too much to open them if they will just stand empty.
“My hoteliers all want to reopen, but as long as the borders remain closed, it’s not possible,” Marco Michielli, deputy head of hoteliers’ association Federalberghi, said Saturday.
Italy’s national tourism agency said some 40 percent of Italians traditionally travel abroad for their holidays, but could be forced in 2020 to vacation at home, helping local businesses.
That may be little comfort to those running the country’s costly historic sites, because most of the tens of thousands of visitors that usually flock daily to the Tower of Pisa, Pantheon or Pompeii come from abroad.