Since the pandemic broke out seriously in Europe last year, the imposition of restriction and lockdown measures to curb its spread has put the continent’s “smoke-free industry” into chaos. Accordingly, many travel agencies are at risk of bankruptcy; tens of millions of jobs have disappeared; and the airline industry, which relies heavily on tourism, has also plunged into misery. Statistics of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) show that global tourism has experienced its darkest period with tourist arrivals falling by 73% in 2020, an estimated number of nearly 62 million jobs having been “stolen”, with losses of up to US$4.5 trillion.
In that spiral of crisis, the EU countries have suffered serious consequences because the tourism industry contributes about 10% of the bloc’s GDP and accounts for 12% of its total employment. Particularly in Southern European nations, the “smoke-free industry” plays an especially important role. According to the World Bank (WB), tourism makes up 20% of Greece’s GDP, 18% of Portugal’s GDP, 15% of Spain’s GDP, and 13% of Italy’s GDP. The chairperson of the Italian Federation of Travel & Tourism Associations said that in 2020 alone, the pandemic caused at least US$8.4 billion in damages to the country’s tourism industry.
In such context, rescuing the tourism sector is being identified by the EU leaders as an immediate task of the bloc. In recent weeks, when the “vaccine coverage” campaign has been accelerated, Europe is witnessing a conspicuous decline in the number of new COVID-19 infections.
Accordingly, many experts, businesses and leaders in Europe have called for the reopening of the tourism sites, with the “vaccine passport” being considered one of the important “medicine doses” for the regional tourism industry. Experts are hoping that the EU’s permission to apply the “digital green certificate” as a passport to facilitate travel, which is expected to commence from next month, will help to increase travel activity while stimulating the recovery of the tourism industry.
In addition, the tourism ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) countries recently pledged support for the EU’s initiative for COVID-safe international travel, seeing this as a solution to help restart the world’s tourism industry. Portugal, which is holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, has called on member states to promptly adopt the “digital health passport” plan to soon salvage Europe’s tourism industry from the current crisis.
At the national level, EU member countries are also drastically implementing financial stimulus plans and have scheduled the date for the restoration of the tourism sector’s activities. Greece recently announced the resumption of tourism activities starting from May 14. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has laid out a four-step plan including the reopening of door to foreign visitors with “health passports” from June. In Spain, the government said it will pour about US$4.1 billion into the tourism industry within the next three years. Malta, an island nation located in the Mediterranean, has approved a US$24.3 billion bailout package to reactivate the “smoke-free industry”, and is expected to open its door for the first foreign visitors this June 1.
Although the majority of experts agree that, the tourism industry of this continent cannot recover “overnight” and will not return to the old normal until at least 2023. However, with the aforementioned efforts of the EU and member countries, the outlook for the continental tourism industry is getting brighter. The EU has now set a target of immunising 70% of the adult population by next month. Accordingly, the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccination and the acceptance of “vaccine passport” will be the key to help revive the growth of the bloc’s “smoke-free industry”.
