Post-coronavirus travel in the EU, up in the air

No one can say when and how the borders will reopen for travel, said Germany’s Government Commissioner for Tourism Thomas Bareiss. “It is rather unlikely that German tourists will travel to Spain or Greece in summer,” he added. It is more likely that Germans will stay in their own country or region this year, according to Bareiss, who pointed out that Germany has “beautiful destinations.” The tourism industry’s economic situation is a disaster not only in the southern European states bordering the Mediterranean, but in Germany, too. The travel industry expects a drop in bookings of package tours of up to 70% this year. The EU Commission estimates that with a loss of 90%, cruise companies will be hit hardest.

Croatia’s Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said the opening of the EU’s internal and external borders would be handled very carefully. “We all agreed that we must above all prevent new waves of infection,” he said after a video conference with his EU counterparts. He didn’t mention a concrete time-frame.

In the EU, 10% of economic output (GDP) is generated by the tourism industry. In some countries, including Greece or Malta, the share of the travel industry in GDP is even higher at 20-25%. According to the EU Commission, Spain generates about 145 billion euros ($157 billion) in the tourism sector, while German hotels and tour operators generate around 240 billion euros a year.

Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli, who chaired the recent Council of the European Union meeting, said he expects that Northern Europeans will travel south during the summer season despite the pandemic as an act of European solidarity. “We need a common plan for the reconstruction of tourism,” Cappelli argued. He also said there should be a common health concept which would allow for a “coronavirus health passport” to be issued to tourists and tour operators. Malta’s Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli advocates common EU standards for health protection in hotels, restaurants, airplanes and on beaches. “There are risks, but we must manage these risks,” Farrugia Portelli said at the ministers’ conference.

Other governments are more reserved, and they also are headed in different directions. Austria is allowing hotels to reopen on May 29, while stipulating that they should rent rooms to travelers from neighboring countries and, if possible, from regions where the coronavirus infection rate is low. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is campaigning for Austrians to spend their summer holidays in their own country this year.

Hotel owners and operators of private-access beaches in Italy are developing unusual concepts to ensure potential holidaymakers can keep their distance, including plexiglas dividers on the beach, and hotels that are only partially occupied, with one-course-only menus served at tables set 2 meters (about 6 feet) apart.

Greece is pondering a kind of tourism corridor from Western Europe. Special planes would fly tourists who can prove their health to verified and coronavirus-free holiday resorts, the Greek Minister of Tourism Charis Theocharis said. Belgium is considering access cards for beaches.

Other tourism ministers want to advertise holidays in the countryside in order to relieve hotel facilities and beaches. However, it remains completely unclear when the EU interior ministers will agree on a coordinated plan for opening the borders for tourists.

— The writer is a reporter with Deutsche Welle