While on the one hand Italy is collecting financial support from Europe, albeit with difficulty and with the contrary opinion of some Northern countries, there is instead a game which is talked about less and which we are clamorously losing: that of reopening of borders, temporarily closed for coronavirus, with all the consequences of the case especially for tourism, on the eve of the high summer season. Once again our European "partners" and in particular Austria are involved, which in addition to opposing the Recovery Fund is beating its fists on a choice that would jeopardize a sector, the tourism sector, which for Italy is worth more than 13% of GDP and employs almost 15% of working citizens: close the Brenner Pass. The choice of chancellor Sebastian Kurz is in fact of confirm the current closure even beyond June 15th, the date by which it will in theory be possible to resume traveling in the Schengen area, even for reasons not related to work or other needs.
In fact, the Council of European Ministers of Tourism has not reached an agreement on coordinated reopenings, instead clearing the bilateral agreements between the less infected countries, which in fact excludes for now two European champions of seaside tourism such as Italy and Spain. However, while Spain is in turn attempting an agreement with Germany to guarantee travel at least to Majorca (one of the Teutonic's historically favorite destinations in the summer), Italy would see the road connection with the country from which arrivals arrive every year blocked. on our beaches the vast majority of visitors. The closure, if confirmed, would mean for our hotels and restaurants, whose restart it is already very complicated, giving up part of a tourism, the German one, which in normal times guarantees us almost 60 million overnight stays a year, and 7 billion in spending.
For now, therefore, not even the decision of the Italian government to reopen the borders and eliminate the quarantine for those arriving in Italy from abroad starting from 3 June has been of no use. It was a move, perhaps even precocious, to start making travel easier again, but Europe has once again refused to address the issue as a whole and in solidarity, preferring, as often happens, a selfish and at most bilateral approach. The hypothesis so far is to identify the so-called green areas, that is – in chromatic contrast with the red ones, more affected by the contagion – areas "reclaimed" or almost from Covid-19, where to safely resume travel for tourism. However, this green corridor, beyond the good intentions, favors only some countries, excluding others.
And Kurz's choice would only exaggerate the question. “An ambitious European action plan is needed to support the tourism sector”, Minister Dario Franceschini tried to argue to his European colleagues, so far without obtaining support, “the negative impact is such that no country can think of doing it alone. The Italian Government intends to dedicate a significant portion of the Recovery Fund to tourism, we are asking for a further effort at European level so that the entire tourism chain is preferentially included in all Community recovery and investment programmes". Since the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, the Wttc estimates that our country has lost 30 million visitors: at the end of the year the hole in the sector could well exceed 100 billion euros. It is clear that the almost zeroing of the summer season would be a catastrophe.
