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European Commission predicts limited tourism within Europe this summer

The European Commission said today to foresee limited tourist movements within Europe this summer, so that the sector will be able to resume “the normality possible”, and defended the mobilization of 20% of the future European recovery fund for these companies.

“I hope that we can start traveling within Europe this summer, despite current restrictions [adotadas devido à pandemia de covid-19], namely people who live in one country and have family in another, [pelo que] these movements must be facilitated ”, declared the European Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.

Speaking by videoconference at a hearing of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism committees from Brussels, the official said: “I am working every day, with the other commissioners from similar areas, to try to facilitate travel in the near future. [na Europa], including this summer, to resume normality as possible, but respecting all restrictions in force ”.

“This will also allow us to reopen, albeit gradually, our infrastructure [turísticas] for our citizens, so that they can benefit from Europe, ”added Thierry Breton.

Stressing that the tourism sector is one of the most affected by the crisis generated by the covid-19, at a time when the population is confined and unable to move, the European commissioner admitted that “this summer season will be private”.

According to the accounts revealed by Thierry Breton at the time, revenue losses are estimated at around 50% in European hotels and restaurants, 70% for tour operators and agencies and 90% for cruise and aviation companies.

For this reason, he assured that the European Commission “is following the sector closely” and that it will “do everything it can” to guarantee financial support, namely through funds mobilized directly for these businesses, namely small and medium sized businesses ( which are almost all).

Thierry Breton therefore defended the allocation of at least 20% of the future European economic recovery fund to this sector, which will be discussed at the leaders’ summit next Thursday.

It will be up to European heads of state and government on that day to decide how this fund will be financed, with a view to rebuilding the post-pandemic community economy.

The intention of the community executive to promote a “genuine debate” on the sector’s recovery is already certain, with Thierry Breton announcing a European summit for the end of September.

“We must reinvent the tourism of tomorrow,” argued the European Commissioner, noting that the pandemic “aroused the need for a resilient and reinvented sector, adapted to economic, environmental and technological realities”.

Insisting on a restructuring of the sector at European level, which aims to avoid realities such as mass tourism that has already caused problems in places like Venice (Italy) or Barcelona (Spain), Thierry Breton expressed his “ambition to keep the European Union as the biggest tourist receiver in the world, but reinventing it ”.

“We must have sustainable tourism, adapted to the European ecological pact, which avoids overcrowding and focuses on proximity, […] and we have to combine traditional operators with those that are highly technological ”, he said.

Until then, according to Thierry Breton, it is necessary to “deal with this unprecedented crisis” in the tourism sector, ensuring that “all existing infrastructure remains intact”.

Globally, the covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 167,000 deaths and infected more than 2.4 million people in 193 countries and territories.

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