The European Union on Wednesday pushed to reopen internal borders and restart travel, although the prospects of reviving tourism ahead of the summer season were mixed as public fears over health and safety weigh heavily during the coronavirus pandemic. summer travel EU

With the tourism sector, which usually accounts for about a tenth of the bloc’s economy, now decimated by the pandemic, the EU’s executive Commission urged a return to “unrestricted free movement”, albeit with safety measures such as face masks on airplanes.

“Our thoughts are now turning toward summer and to the places that we love to travel,” said Margrethe Vestager, a Commission deputy. “That means taking gradual, careful steps to help travel restart in line with what science tells us.”

Tourism industry groups praised the recommendations as a first step to help save their businesses, but the Commission’s proposals are non-binding on the 27 EU members.

SOCIAL-DISTANCE TRAVEL summer travel EU

Under the Commission’s proposals, airlines and airports would insist passengers wear masks, and reorganise check-ins, dropoffs and luggage pickups to avoid crowds. They would not require that middle seats be left empty on planes, a measure some airlines say would make profitable flying impossible.

The Commission also wants to make vouchers – as opposed to cash refunds – more attractive for tourists. Under EU rules, travellers have the right to choose between vouchers or cash reimbursement for cancelled transport tickets (plane, train, bus/coach, and ferries) or package travel. While reaffirming this right, the Commission’s recommendation aims to ensure that vouchers become a viable alternative to reimbursement for cancelled trips in the context of the current pandemic, which has also put heavy financial strains on travel operators.

It said people should be able to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants or go to beaches – though it stressed the situation would have to be monitored to prevent a new surge in infections.

“This looks like good news,” said Toni Mayor, president of a hotels’ association in Spain’s Valencia region which includes the major package holiday destination Benidorm. “If this combines with less pressure from the virus, as it seems, … we might just be able to half-save the summer season.”

European governments are pressing ahead with their own plans to reopen at different speeds, depending on national circumstances, and some are promoting domestic tourism.

Already, the three Baltic states have decided to reopen borders to each others’ citizens from May 15, creating a “travel bubble”.

Austria and Germany plan to fully reopen their border on June 15. That will particularly help Austria’s tourism industry, which relies heavily on German visitors.

And Switzerland plans to completely reopen borders to all neighbours except Italy on June 15, provided the pandemic allows.

However, Italy warned against border pacts between individual EU nations, saying such deals could destroy the single market. summer travel EU

“We will not accept bilateral accords within the European Union that might create privileged tourist channels,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in Rome. “That would leave us outside the European Union and we will never allow this.”

GERMAN TRAVEL AGENTS PROTEST

Some of the biggest tourist destinations are in the hardest-hit countries, like Italy, Spain and France, which are only opening up slowly.

Spanish authorities are planning to keep the country’s borders closed to most travellers from abroad until July, two foreign ministry sources said on Wednesday. summer travel EU

Some countries are also planning to impose two-week quarantine periods for travellers arriving from abroad – including Britain, which has left the EU but is observing its trade and travel regulations until the end of the year while it negotiates its future relations with the bloc.

The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have already said that on May 15 they will open their borders to each other. Free movement, however, will only be for citizens of the three countries already in the new border-free area: anyone entering from outside will have to go into quarantine for 14 days.

Poland meanwhile will extend its strict border controls until June 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, its interior ministry said on May 14.

Within Europe’s “Schengen” area, where borders are normally invisible, at least 17 nations have imposed emergency border controls.

With more than 6 million jobs in the tourism sector at risk across Europe, German travel agents protested on Wednesday to demand more government support for the industry.

In Berlin, some drove buses past the Brandenburg Gate, emblazoned with banners. Hamburg airport tweeted a video showing socially distanced protesters at a terminal with suitcases on carts displaying signs saying “We travel agents won’t leave our clients out in the rain”.

German-based travel group TUI said on Wednesday it would cut 8,000 jobs and look to shed 30% of costs even as it gears up for a July restart to European tourism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the aim was to eliminate border controls again from June 15 in the Schengen area, but also warned people against rushing back to normality too fast and thus endangering a tentative improvement of the health situation. (Reuters)

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