Southern Europe is open to tourists, but only a handful show up

As the deadly virus is upon us, most of the industries have fallen, and the worst hit by far is on tourism industry. This situation has halted millions of trips a year without a doubt.  Many countries are opening doors for tourists despite the fear, but the results are not as fruitful as expected.  Tourism is trying to return to southern Europe — stretching from Portugal to Greece — its restart has been very slow amid new outbreaks in some countries. Bookings are down by 80 percent in Italy despite government incentives. Ferries to the Greek islands are carrying half the load of what they once did.

While Europeans are starting to travel more within their own countries, far fewer are venturing beyond their borders, particularly the holiday makers from Britain, Germany and other northern countries who typically journey south each year, spending billions of euros.

And visitors from outside the continent are few and far between: Just thirteen countries are on the list of those considered safe by the European Union, a list that so far excludes the United States.

The negative effect is observed acutely in tourist destinations dependent on air travel, like the Canary Islands, hundreds of miles from mainland Spain. Airlines carried 15 million visitors to the archipelago last year, but the flight capacity this month is just a disappointing 30 percent of what it was a year ago.