The revival of tourism in Europe is turning into turbulence just weeks after countries enthusiastically reopened their borders, with increasing infections in Spain and other countries, raising concerns about people bringing the coronavirus on vacation. Of summer.
European countries began to open up to each other in mid-June (American visitors are still excluded), but recent events have shown that the new freedom to travel is subject to sudden setbacks. Over the weekend, Britain imposed a 14-day quarantine on travelers arriving from Spain, Norway ordered a 10-day quarantine for people returning from across the Iberian Peninsula, and France urged its citizens not to visit the region. of Catalonia in Spain.
In Austria, the resort town of St. Wolfgang, on the lakefront, shortened the bar’s opening hours after an outbreak was detected on Friday. As of Monday, 53 people had tested positive for the coronavirus, many of them interns working in the tourism industry.
In Germany, officials last week decided to set up test stations at airports to encourage people arriving from a long list of countries considered high-risk, including traditionally popular destinations like Turkey, to get tested. They will also allow people to take the test elsewhere for free within three days of arrival.
“We are still very concerned about the holidays,” Bavarian Governor Markus Soeder said Monday. “My concern is not that there will be a large Ischgl, but that there will be many mini-Ischgls,” he added, referring to the Austrian ski resort that was an early European hot spot when the virus crisis took off in March.
“We are already seeing this in Spain, but also elsewhere,” Soeder said, adding that trips by German residents to visit families abroad are also a concern. He called for tests at airports of vacationers returning from risky areas to be mandatory, something the federal government is considering.
“For the most part, it is the people considered to have behaved very cautiously on vacation anyway who accept the voluntary offers, while the most careless do not take a voluntary test,” the chief of staff told RBB Inforadio from Chancellor Angela Merkel, Helge Braun. . New infections in Germany have progressively increased from a low level.
Tourism employs 2.6 million people in Spain and generates 12% of the country’s economic activity.
Juan Molas, head of a national association of Spanish tourism companies, Mesa del Turismo, said the country’s tourism sector has lost an average of $ 5.8 billion per week since March.
Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said the Spanish government is trying to persuade Britain to exempt the Balearic Islands, which have a relatively low infection rate, from the quarantine rule. “We are living with the virus. That doesn’t mean we can’t travel. We can, if we are careful, “said Maroto.
The head of the Valencia regional government, which includes the popular Costa Blanca, also said he wanted an exemption. “The tourist season has already been very difficult,” Ximo Puig told Cadena Ser radio. “We had some hope of saving something in August, but this is a very hard blow.”
The northeastern regions of Catalonia and Aragon have the most worrisome coronavirus groups in Spain, which led authorities to tighten restrictions in Barcelona, in a rural area around Lleida and in Zaragoza that relaxed only a month ago .
Catalonia faces “the 10 most decisive days of this summer,” said regional leader Quim Torra, warning that it was in everyone’s hands to prevent a “critical situation” from worsening. But he also insisted that Catalonia was generally safe and said that the tourism sector “is prepared with all security measures.”
Elsewhere in Europe, Belgian authorities said that cases of COVID-19 are growing at an alarming rate amid increased infections in Antwerp. Greek authorities said they were likely to expand the mandatory use of masks in churches and shopping malls, citing worsening public adherence to the safety guidelines.
And in North Africa, Morocco banned most travel to and from some major cities, such as Tangier, Casablanca, and Marrakech, generally a popular tourist destination, to try to stem a small increase in cases.
In the Asia-Pacific region, many countries continue to essentially ban foreign travelers or, if allowed to enter, forcing them to undergo testing and strict quarantine. That includes Australia, where Victoria’s state prime minister Daniel Andrews said the biggest driver of the region’s current outbreak is that people continue to go to work after showing symptoms.
Vietnam postponed next week’s holding of Asia’s largest security forum and an annual meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers for a month until September due to the pandemic. Two Southeast Asian diplomats said Vietnam, which leads the Association. of Southeast Asian nations this year, and appears to have controlled virus outbreaks within its borders, hopes to hold face-to-face meetings in mid-September.
Crossing borders was linked to other outbreaks in Asia. South Korea said 16 of the 25 new cases it confirmed Monday were linked to people arriving from abroad.
In recent days, the country reported dozens of cases between crew members of a Russian-flagged cargo ship and hundreds of South Korean construction workers flown in from Iraq.
A Johns Hopkins University count shows more than 16.2 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 648,000 deaths. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to limited testing and other problems.
The World Health Organization said the pandemic continues to accelerate, with a doubling of cases in the past six weeks.
The agency’s emergency chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, emphasized the need to “keep the pressure on the virus.”
“In all the countries where pressure has been lifted on the virus, where the virus is still at the community level, there has been a backward leap in cases,” he said.
