China has announced that Beijing will be reopening to international flights from 8 countries ending 5 months of lock-down in the Chinese capital.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said that it would reopen to the countries based on their low rate of COVID-19.
The international flights begin today and will only be permitted to land in Beijing.
Today we can already say for sure that the first progress has begun, or rather, attempts to open cities, regions and countries for local long-distance and international tourism. That's what is happening in different countries in the tourism industry now ..
The first to decide on opening borders for tourists and the new tourist season are Turkey, Greece and even Italy, since such countries are very dependent on beach tourism.
Turkey hopes to open the season for domestic tourism in mid-May, and an influx of foreign tourists is expected at the end of the month, by the beginning of summer. In this regard, the so-called "health certificate" is being actively introduced, on the basis of which hotels and tourist areas that have this certificate will be the first to open. This will be an official document, which indicates the absence of coronavirus.
Other countries intend to introduce the same certificate. So far, it is not entirely clear who will verify and issue such a certificate? It is also not clear how often such checks will be on the style of the establishment and is it a temporary measure or will it be a tourist norm?
Using the example of domestic tourism and local travelers, the country plans to show foreign tourists that Turkey is a clean, safe and hygienic vacation spot! For Turkey, this is very important, since tourism income amounted to almost 4% of the total GDP of the state and in 2019 was approaching $ 35 billion.
Greece is going to open borders for foreign tourists in mid-June and expects increased demand due to the fact that the country did not have a high incidence. The first foreign tourists will be able to be only those countries where there were also low incidence rates or in which now the level of cases has dropped to a certain minimum. At the same time, the country's authorities suggest that the so-called “health passport” may become a prerequisite for foreign tourists to enter Greece - this document is a certificate confirming the negative result of the coronavirus test, which citizens of other states will be required to do before vacation. How such a "health passport" can guarantee viral safety is not yet clear. Nevertheless, now there is an assumption that such a "Health Passport" will be introduced by many countries and may become a new norm for international travel.
In Italy, the opening of museums and major attractions such as the Colosseum and Pompeii are expected in May. They also plan to open beaches and hotels, but they will no longer have to rely on a buffet as in Turkey. Such a service will replace the integrated menu. The number of beach chairs is reduced on the beaches, umbrellas will be placed 10-14 metro from each other, and perhaps a place on the beach will now need to be booked like a table in the restaurant in advance. This is due to the fact that places will now be limited and certain zones and time for relaxing on the beaches will be reserved for the elderly.
In some countries, in order to socially distance themselves on beaches, special booths made of plexiglass or partition walls are being thought out, which can also become a tourist reality. But it’s not at all clear how it can really protect tourists, at least no one has done such tests and there are no statistics on performance.
In Hong Kong, a new device is being tested at the international airport, which performs a complete disinfection in 40 seconds: it is able to destroy both bacteria and viruses on the skin and clothes. Here, however, there are also questions about how this can affect human health, since we have many other and possibly beneficial bacteria on our bodies. Robot cleaners are also tested there, moving around the halls to clean the surface of bacteria and viruses using ultraviolet radiation.
In the USA, the airport has a transport safety department - TCA calls for washing hands before and after passing through customs or inspection procedures, disinfector and posters about the social distance of 2 meters are everywhere. Airports equipped with electronic kiosks for self check-in encourage passengers to actively use them to reduce interaction with other people.
So what do we have for today? Passports and health certificates, social distance in places of rest, transport and at airports, reduction of places for rest, cabins, dividers, face masks, more thorough verification procedures for international tourism, increase in the number of personnel for maintenance and maintenance of recreation areas clean, psychological "trauma" of the tourism market and at the same time a great desire to travel and relax in different places not only remained but even increased many times, since people spent quite a lot of time on self-isolation nor have there been different reappraisals of life in general. All this together builds a new vector in the tourism economy and in tourism as an industry. Perhaps in the near...