Europe working hard to welcome back tourists
EU likely to ease nonessential travel restrictions from June
VALLETTA — With the improving rollout of vaccinations in Europe, confidence is growing around the possibility of a recovery in the continent’s tourism industry.
The Digital Green Certificate, introduced by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is expected to be implemented from June and will help ease restrictions on nonessential travel to the EU.
Such measures will provide a much-needed boost to the tourism industry, though there is a long way to go before pre-pandemic levels of travel resumes.
Earlier this month, ministers of tourism from the Group of 20, comprising 19 countries and the EU, pledged support for “safe international mobility initiatives” as a way to help relaunch the world’s tourism industry.
Portugal, currently president of the EU Council, urged member states to “act without delay” to save European tourism from the COVID-19 crisis by speeding up a digital health passport scheme.
The European Commission also called on member states to grant entry to travelers fully vaccinated and those coming from countries with low infection rates.
At the end of April, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a four-stage plan to allow foreign tourists back into France with a “health pass” by June 9.
Greece, whose tourism industry accounts for about one-fifth of its GDP and employment, announced its reopening to tourists on May 14.
The EU aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its adults by July, and some European countries plan to stimulate the recovery of tourism by injecting large amounts of money into the sector.
Heavy losses
The tourism sector has been fragmented and damaged seriously by the pandemic. Data from the World Travel and Tourism Council shows global tourist arrivals dropped by 73 percent year-on-year in 2020, with a loss of nearly 62 million travel-and tourist-related jobs.
The WTTC’s figures also indicated that the travel and tourism industries suffered a loss of $4.5 trillion by the end of 2020, with its contribution to GDP dropping by 49.1 percent year-on-year.
France receives some 90 million foreign tourists in a normal year, but lost two-thirds of tourist arrivals in 2020. Tourism revenue plunged to 89 billion euros ($108.3 billion), down by 41 percent from a year earlier.
Half of the country’s hotels stayed open with occupancy rates below 20 percent, compared with an average of 75 percent in previous years, said Corinne Menegaux, director of the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Spain’s tourism industry suffered a loss of around 76.6 billion euros, with visitor arrivals falling by around 68.3 million from January 2020 to January 2021, according to data released by the Spanish Statistical Office.
In Italy, the pandemic caused a loss of at least 70 billion euros in the tourism industry last year, and the damage is likely to continue this year, according to Marina Lalli, president of Federturismo, an arm of the industrial association Confindustria.
Portuguese hotel revenues fell by 74 percent year-on-year to 1.1 billion euros, with the numbers of domestic and foreign tourists slumping by 71 percent year-on-year between March 2020 and February this year, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute.
“The COVID-19 crisis put the sector under strong economic pressure and had a particularly serious impact on small- and medium-sized companies,” Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs Ana Paula Zacarias said.