the European Union has been setting out
proposals for a gradual resumption of
travel and tourism as the industry tries
to survive
following the coronavirus lockdowns
here's the EU commissioner Margherita of
astera
outlining the measures we need carefully
reopen borders within Europe so we have
adopted guidance for member states on a
gradual coordinated lifting of
restrictions on the free movements in
Europe second people need of course to
be able to travel between European
countries so we're giving guidance on
how to gradually reopen transport links
without risking the health of travelers
or transport workers third travellers
and workers they need to know that the
places that tourists visits but they are
safe hotels restaurants beaches other
tourist sites they need to be run in a
way that minimizes the risk of passing
on the coronavirus well tourism normally
accounts for 10% of the EU economic
output and these plans involve countries
working together to gradually remove
travel bans and then border checks
Germany has announced that there will be
a gradual easing of its border controls
starting from the 16th of May when its
border crossings with France Switzerland
and Austria will be opened for more on
the German government's position his
Jenny Hill in Berlin we heard from
Angela Merkel today who I think given
her love of the European project and the
internal market is very keen to start
reopening borders but Germany's position
is that it's not simply a matter of what
the infection rates are like in those
neighboring states it's also to do with
what kind of measures are in place so
she said today there's no point in
reopening a German border with a
neighboring country if restrictions and
measures aren't symmetrical either side
of those borders so I think there's a
lot more work to be done although
Germany has now said that come the
middle of June it will lift border
restrictions as long as a number of
those caveats are met and of course
chief among them is the question of how
well those neighboring countries are
doing when it comes to keeping
the outbreak under control well another
country that has a huge interest in
reopening its borders to tourists is
Greece and here's the Greek Minister for
tourism we will safeguard the health of
both our population and our visitor by
ensuring that the said that depending on
the agreements that will make with other
countries and on a pan-european level
that we can use either test or other
means to limit the risk of spreading the
virus so their strategy is testing and
on a grand scale but before the pandemic
Greece used to receive around 30 million
foreign visitors a year so it's going to
be a huge undertaking to ensure that
tourism there this year does not spread
the virus well for more on how the new
EU travel guidelines will actually work
in practice here's our Europe editor
catcher Adler public health and national
borders and time of crisis that's up to
you members have decide for themselves
what happens and it'll be the same when
it comes to tourism each EU country will
decide for itself when to open its
beaches and its borders to European
tourists Brussels can only advise and
the advice today was slowly-slowly yes
European economies like the UK's have
been hard-hit bike ovid 19 and tourism
is an important part of the economy
especially for Mediterranean countries
like Spain and like France but the
Commission advises that nobody should
open for tourism unless they've got very
good testing and tracing capacity for
kovat 19 and unless there's strict
controls on transport on accommodation
and leisure activities and like with all
of the
lifting of lockdown measures if there's
a new spike in infections then traveler
restrictions could be reintroduced
pretty quickly so basically don't pack
your summer swimsuit just yet
well I want to put that point by katia
to Tom Hall who is vice president of
experience at the Lonely Planet Tom so
our Europe editors are saying don't pack
your swimsuit just yet how is this going
to work out in reality well I think that
most holidaymakers can be optimist
Oh cautious I think key points in all of
this is this is going to be a slow
process it's going to country by country
or region by region as we're just
hearing some countries are well slowly
some are there and others there are just
a huge amount of nods of questions on so
are we going to be looking at these kind
of border bubbles like the Baltic bubble
with Estonia Latvia Lithuania initially
easing travel restrictions or Germany
Austria France easing the travel
restrictions between those countries a
country's going to group up in that case
I think that is a definite early step
that we're going to see and clearly
we're already talking about some of
those that you talk about travel
possibly between the UK and Ireland and
France being a ability earlier before
you could get the other destination and
the very first thing is actually
domestic travel you know people either
going to have bronze or maybe taking a
holiday a little a little bit closer to
home and I think one of the most robust
areas of demand at the moment across is
for domestic travel and certainly self
catering we don't really know what's
happening with a lot of hotels and camps
at home and so they're filled so it's
people looking for as much certainty as
they can get cases that means planning a
holiday at home and when it comes to
testing being at the forefront of
enabling people to travel and when you
hear the figures like 30 million people
crossing into Greece for the over the
holiday periods that's an awful lot of
testing is that really real
well I mean you know tourists anybody
traveling you know over the next few
months is going to experience business
very much as unusual a series of new
experiences and this whole question more
for testing at a scale like that what it
might like and how it might work in
conjunction with tracing at you know
we've heard that the idea of tracing ups
neatly a pan-european initiative and
very unusual experiences when people are
passing through airports and on planes
Ryanair announce that they're planning
on resuming 40% of flights but you need
to foil --it you're almost and you will
need to wear a mask and you know you
will need to have a process flowing
through the airport as possible
mark resulting significant queues or am
I actually in some cases results in
people moving through areas of airports
much slower than they have done in the
past and and then when people get there
possibly enforce distance features and
in you know other leisure facilities so
quite few unanswered questions but
certainly the future state of travel
means is going to be a few more hurdles
to get through quite a few sacrifices in
order for people to get somewhere and
enjoy it but in all of that having
people been through the last few months
the idea of a holiday appeal a bit I
think he's going to still be a very very
strong Tom thank you so much Tom Hall
there from the Lonely Planet's and
apologies to our viewers for a bit of a
drop out there in Tom's line but I think
you get the gist of what he was saying
that it's not going to be business as
usual certainly not anytime soon