BERLIN
(AP) — Europe is taking a big step toward a new normality as many
countries open borders to fellow Europeans after three months of
coronavirus lockdowns — but even though Europeans love their summer
vacations, it’s not clear how many are ready to travel again.
Tourists from the U.S., Asia, Latin American and the Mideast will just have to wait, for now.
The European
Union home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told member nations
last week that they “should open up as soon as possible” and suggested
Monday was a good date.
Many countries
are doing just that, allowing travel from the EU, Britain and the rest
of Europe’s usually passport-free Schengen travel area, which includes
non-EU countries like Switzerland.
ADVERTISEMENT
Europe’s
reopening won’t be a repeat of the chaotic free-for-all in March when
panicked, uncoordinated border closures caused traffic jams that
stretched for miles. Still, it’s a complicated, shifting patchwork of
different rules. And although tourist regions are desperately counting
on them, a lot of Europeans may decide to stay close to home this
summer.
That’s something tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries such as Greece
are keen to avoid. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged
Saturday that “a lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to
travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination.”
Greece has
emphasized its handling of its outbreak, which saw only 183 deaths.
Overall, Europe has seen more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths this
year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that also shows
Europe has had 2.04 million of the world’s 7.8 million infections.
Spain, which
isn’t ending restrictions on domestic travel for another week and will
restart foreign tourism in full on July 1, is allowing thousands of
Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands for a two-week trial run starting Monday — waiving its 14-day quarantine for the group.
Border checks
in some places have already wound down. Italy opened its borders on June
3 and towns on the German-Polish border celebrated early Saturday as
Poland opened the gates. At midnight, the mayors of Goerlitz, Germany
and Zgorzelec, Poland cut through chains on a makeshift fence that had
divided the towns.
ADVERTISEMENT
Germany,
like France and others, is lifting remaining border checks on Monday
and scrapping a requirement that arrivals must prove they have a good
reason to enter. It also is easing a worldwide warning against
nonessential travel to exempt European countries – except, probably,
Finland, Norway and Spain, where travel restrictions remain, and Sweden,
where the level of new coronavirus infections is deemed too high.
Many German
regions have reimposed a quarantine requirement for arrivals from
Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a
relatively high death rate.
Czech
authorities will require arrivals from Sweden to show a negative
COVID-19 test or to self-quarantine – along with travelers from Portugal
and Poland’s Silesia region.
Austria is
opening up Tuesday to European neighbors except Spain, Portugal, Sweden
and Britain — and keeping a travel warning for Italy’s worst-hit region
of Lombardy. France is asking people from Britain to self-quarantine for
two weeks.
Britain recently introduced a 14-day quarantine
requirement for most arrivals, to the horror of its tourism and
aviation industries, which say the move will hit visits to Britain hard
this summer.
Denmark is
opening up only for tourists from Germany, Norway and Iceland — and only
if they can prove that they’re staying for at least six nights. Norway
also is keeping shut its long border with Sweden.
“I realize
this is a big disappointment. But the restrictions are based on
objective criteria that are the same for everyone,” Norwegian Prime
Minister Erna Solberg said. “If we open too quickly, the infection can
get out of control.”
With flights
only gradually picking up, nervousness about new outbreaks abroad,
uncertainty about social distancing at tourist venues and many people
facing unemployment or pay cuts, this may be a good summer for domestic
tourism.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are both
planning to vacation in their homelands this year.
“The
recommendation is still, if you want to be really safe, a vacation in
Austria,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told ORF
television, recalling the scramble in March to bring home thousands of
tourists as borders slammed shut. “In Austria, you know that you don’t
have to cross a border if you want to get home, and you know the
infrastructure and the health system well.”
The German
government, which helped fly 240,000 people home as the pandemic grew
exponentially, also has no desire to repeat that experience.
“My appeal to
all those who travel: Enjoy your summer vacation — but enjoy it with
caution and responsibility,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
“In the summer holidays, we want to make it as difficult as possible for
the virus to spread again in Europe.”
—-
Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
No comments:
Post a Comment