(TAN): European Commissioner for Internal Markets, Thierry Breton said Europe’s tourism sector is losing around EUR 1 billion (USD 1.11 billion approximately) a month owing to the coronavirus outbreak, reports said.
The virus, which has entered its third month, compelled tourists to cancel airline and hotel bookings and brought visitor numbers down in otherwise bustling tourist destinations across the globe, as per reports.
According to reports, Europe’s tourism industry suffered a dip in two stages – firstly, visitor inflow from China went down after the virus gathered strength in the country, and secondly, as the epidemic spread around Europe, travellers deferred plans and governments shut down tourist sites to prevent the virus from spreading further.
[ALSO READ: Ireland receives stunning 655,000 visitors in January 2020]
European Union member states reportedly said nearly two million hotel nights were lost in January and February, as per reports.
Meanwhile, France closed one of the biggest tourist attractions on the planet, the Louvre Museum, last weekend as cases went up in Italy, reports said. The museum, famous for Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, reportedly received 9.6 million visitors last year.
The Louvre closed over concerns of its employees being contaminated by visitors from all over the world, and by museum workers who were visiting the Louvre from Italy, as per reports.
“We are very worried because we have visitors from everywhere. The risk is very, very, very great,” Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative was quoted by Market Watch as saying.
The museum was closed after the government recently banned indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people, reports said.
Large gatherings in other parts of Europe suffered too – ITB Berlin 2020, tourism trade fair scheduled to take place between March 4 and 8 in the German capital, was cancelled amid fears surrounding the spread of the virus, according to reports.
Related posts:
Venice Simplon Orient Express, ‘the world’s most stylist train’ promises the party of a lifetime
Italy reopens borders to tourists from within Europe, looks to rescue tourism sector crippled by COVID-19
Cruise passenger found with common flu after 6,000 tourists were trapped at Italian port over coronavirus fears
Airbnb hosts to help provide housing to 100,000 COVID-19 responders
