The first tourist flights in four months landed on the Greek island of Crete, and Spain and Portugal reopened their land border as European countries continued to ease travel restrictions, but the UN warned of a massive dive in global tourism revenues and Brazil approached 60,000 deaths.
A charter plane carrying 172 passengers from Hamburg landed at Heraklion airport on Crete at 8am, minutes after another aircraft had arrived from the Czech Republic, re-establishing the island’s air links with the outside world.
The airport’s manager, Giorgos Pliakas, told local TV 40 international flights were expected on Wednesday, with more than 60 more scheduled to land at other regional airports around the country including on Mykonos, Rhodes and Kos.
Travellers from the UK and Sweden are not welcome until 15 July, however, and while Wednesday’s arrivals from other EU countries were greeted with traditional music and sweets, they all had to complete an online form 48 before boarding and be prepared to submit to a Covid-19 test on arrival if considered necessary.
All Greek airports are now receiving international flights and Patras and Igoumenitsa ports will again be welcoming ferries from Italy, but the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told cabinet he was expecting “a very difficult tourism season. We must do the best we can.”
Meanwhile, in Badajoz, Spain, António Costa, the prime minister of Portugal, and his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, reopened the countries’ shared border to travellers for the first time in more than three months in a ceremony also attended by Spain’s King Felipe and Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“Our shared prosperity and common destiny within the European project depend on this border being open,” Costa tweeted earlier. “I can’t give you a hug,” Sánchez said apologetically as the mask-clad prime ministers greeted each other in person.
Malta and Croatia also opened their borders to travellers on Wednesday. But Turkey made a point of urging the EU to correct the “disappointing mistake” of excluding it from the bloc’s list of safe coronavirus travel partners, which includes Australia and Morocco but excludes Russia, Turkey and the US.
Beyond Europe, Brazil’s government said it would restrict the entry of foreigners to the country for 30 days. Foreigners with permanent residence in Brazil or working authorisation are exempt, along with foreigners with Brazilian spouses or children.
Brazil currently has the second-highest number of cases and deaths in the world due to Covid-19, behind only the US, with 1.4m confirmed infections and a death toll of 59,600. According to the Johns Hopkins university tracker, Covid-19 has now infected 10,512,383 people globally and killed 512,331.
Coronavirus travel restrictions are expected to cost the tourism industry up to $3.3tn (£2.6tn) globally, with the US standing to lose the most, according to a UN study, the Covid-19 and Tourism report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
The report sketched three scenarios for the industry, with lockdown measures lasting four months, eight months and 12 months – and revenues predicted to fall by $1.17tn, $2.22tn and $3.3tn respectively. It said the middle scenario could be realistic.
“International tourism has been almost totally suspended, and domestic tourism curtailed by lockdown conditions imposed in many countries. Although some destinations have started slowly to open up, many are afraid of international travel or cannot afford it due to the economic crisis,” it said.
