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Hurried departures, cancellations, tremors over the winter season – Corona’s travel advisories from abroad are throwing tourism into a crisis.
Germany wants to go one step further on October 15. Thereafter, online registration will apply when entering from the countries of Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Vienna, which are currently classified as risk areas. And further adversity threatens: entry is considered only possible after a five-day quarantine, without prior “free trials”. “This regulation is only in preparation. It has not yet been decided if or when it will arrive,” says the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tyrol, Dietmar Czernich.
There is a growing discussion about the figures on which travel advisory decisions in Europe are based. The most important German standard is the seven-day incidence. If a region exceeds the limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants accumulated over seven days (the seven-day average is used in Austria), it ends up on the Robert Koch Institute’s red list. However, not immediately. He handles it very carefully. The trend must be confirmed over time. Germany has risk areas from Iceland to the Iberian Peninsula. It is therefore not a political problem, according to German government circles. For which: “Pressure from Vienna, Tyrol and the federal government” have already heard it in Berlin. You understand that too. The stakes are high for Austrian economics.
There are hardly any official figures on how many foreign tourists were infected in Austria. A broadcast reveals that there have been no more than 100 in total since June.
Switzerland weighs
If you want to see the travel warning lottery in its entirety, you should look to Switzerland. Countries in which an average of 60 or more people per 100,000 inhabitants are infected in 14 days appear on this list. However, other interests also play a role. Last Friday, Switzerland decided that Vorarlberg would not be on the list, even though there were 121 cases. Upper Austria, with an average of 65 cases at the time, received a travel warning like Lower Austria and Vienna. Governor Thomas Stelzer (VP) criticized it as “incomprehensible.” An ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council makes this possible: “Areas on the border with Switzerland with which there is close economic, social and cultural exchange can be excluded from the list, even if they meet any of the requirements.”
East Tyrol feels disadvantaged
“Arbitrary and disproportionate”: this is how the mayor of Lienz, Elisabeth Blanik (SP), describes how East Tyrol is treated, which is part of the Tyrol and is affected by the German travel warning. “I don’t know anyone here who understands that East Tyrol is treated in the same way as the orange districts.” Tyrolean MEP Barbara Thaler (VP) similarly argues: “Whole states or federal states cannot be classified as risk areas due to individual crown hotspots. East Tyrol, as the largest district in terms of area has only seven active positive cases. However, the Lienz district is as affected as Innsbruck with 132 “.
At European level, there should be no agreement on a common travel alert system with uniform criteria in the short term. The EU Commission has proposed one. This traffic light would be controlled from Stockholm, where the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is located.
But no country in the group of 27 wants to make a decision on when a travel warning will be issued. After all, it was announced that they wanted to coordinate better.
Corona’s travel advisories are “nonsense” from an epidemiological point of view, says Armin Fidler, a public health expert from Vorarlberg. He is not the only one who has suggested that travel warnings are also used in politics.
Three questions for Armin Fidler
The Vorarlberg doctor and public health expert is a member of the federal traffic light commission, teaches in Innsbruck and Bologna and has worked for the WHO and the World Bank.
How do you rate the travel warning lottery in Europe?
Even the border closures during the closure were unjustified. Also, the travel restrictions are silly. I am not alone in this opinion, there are many words of warning from renowned experts. From an epidemiological point of view, travel restrictions are useless. Or it is a matter of technical misunderstanding or financial difficulties. It’s like closing borders: this only makes sense in countries that are following a completely different strategy or in which the situation is beyond the limits.
So are travel advisories fundamentally wrong?
No. Taking the example of India right now: when I drive to a high risk area, I know the situation is precarious and it is best not to take a tourist trip. But to me it makes no sense that people have to be quarantined, have to do tests and thus paralyze all travel activity and the economy.
Is there a travel warning policy?
Yes, that cannot be ruled out. We too, for example, issued a travel advisory for the whole of Croatia, although only part of the coast was affected. We didn’t bother to find out where exactly the groups came from. And then the coach follows back.
