Holidays: Europe rolls out the welcome mat
Spain is preparing to welcome back foreign tourists, said Ashifa Kassam in The Observer. The outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants in Madrid and Barcelona have opened, and the country’s resorts are putting social distancing protocols in place for the arrival of guests in July. But few are expecting a busy holiday season in Spain, or in Italy and Greece, which are likewise poised to reopen to international tourists. Fears of contagion, and money worries, will prevent many people venturing abroad. And another key factor will deter British tourists: the prospect of having to endure 14 days of mandatory self-isolation when they return to the UK, under the threat of a £1,000 fine.
Britain’s quarantine scheme, which is due to come into force on 8 June, is a joke, said Chris Leadbeater in The Daily Telegraph. It’s a prime example of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Making everyone who enters the UK lock themselves away for a fortnight will achieve nothing other than further destroying the tourism industry. There was talk of establishing “air bridges” with trusted countries, exempting them from the policy, but that doesn’t seem to have come to anything. Ministers say the hope is to at least give the green light to UK staycations by early July, but their plans are vague and the tourist authorities in places like Cornwall and Cumbria are still telling would-be visitors to stay away. At a time when people need clarity, “all they are being offered is contradiction, chaos and cock-up”.
Holiday plans might seem a “trifling matter” when set against all the deaths and misery caused by Covid-19, said Dave Seminara in The Wall Street Journal. But a lot of people’s livelihoods depend on tourism. A third of the jobs lost in the US in recent weeks were linked to its travel industry, which generated $1.1trn in revenue in 2019. Tourism accounts for a large chunk of the GDP of countries such as France, Spain and Italy. International travellers have received a lot of bad press in recent years, accused of over-crowding cities and trashing the planet. Yet many areas are about to discover to their cost what it’s like when all those annoying tourists stay away.
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