FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – These are the annual trips in late winter and early spring: factory workers in China head home for the Lunar New Year; American students who go on trips and get to the beach during the spring break; Germans and British fleeing the gloomy sky for a Mediterranean Easter sun.
Everything was canceled, in doubt or under pressure due to the coronavirus.
Amid fears over new variants of the virus, new restrictions on movement have hit as people begin to look ahead to what is usually a busy time of year for travelers.
It means more pain for airlines, hotels, restaurants and tourist destinations that have been struggling for more than a year in a pandemic and a slower recovery for countries where tourism is a big part of the economy.
Colleges in the United States have canceled the spring break to discourage students from traveling. After Indiana University in Bloomington replaced its usual break with three “wellness days,” student Jacki Sylvester abandoned plans to celebrate 21 years in Las Vegas.
Instead, she will mark the landmark closer to home with a day at the casino in French Lick, Indiana, just 80 miles away.
“I was looking forward to leaving here for a whole week. I wanted to be able to have a few drinks and have fun – to see the casinos and everything – and to honestly see another city and travel a little bit, ”she said.
“At least it allows us to have a little fun one day in a condensed version of our original Vegas plans. As if, I can still celebrate. … I’m just forced to do it closer to home. ”
At China’s bus and train stations, there is no sign of the annual Lunar New Year rush. The government has urged the public to avoid travel following new outbreaks of coronavirus. Only five of the 15 security gates at the cavernous Central Station in Beijing were open; the crowd of travelers accustomed to camping on the wide market outside was missing.
The holiday, which begins on February 12, is usually the largest movement of mankind in the world, as hundreds of millions of Chinese leave their cities to visit their hometowns or tourist sites or to travel abroad. For millions of migrant workers, it is usually the only chance to visit their hometowns during the year. This year, the authorities promise additional payments if they remain in place.
The government says people will travel 1.7 billion during the holidays, but this is down 40% from 2019. It is estimated that departures from Beijing and Chengdu in the southwest will fall by 75%, according to the associations. travels.
Each news cycle seems to bring new restrictions. US President Joe Biden has reinstated restrictions on travelers from more than two dozen European countries, South Africa and Brazil, while people leaving the US are now required to take a negative test before returning.
Canada has banned flights to the Caribbean. Israel has closed its main international airport. Travel to the European Union is severely restricted, with entry bans and quarantine requirements for returning citizens.
For air travel, “the short-term outlook has certainly darkened,” said Brian Pearce, chief economist at the International Air Transport Association. Governments have invested $ 200 billion in supporting the industry.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization says international arrivals fell 74 percent last year, eliminating $ 1.3 trillion in revenue and endangering up to 120 million jobs. A group of UNWTO experts had a mixed outlook for 2021, with 45% expecting a better year, 25% unchanged and 30% worse.
“The overall outlook for a return in 2021 appears to have worsened,” the organization said.
In Europe, the outlook is blurred by the late launches of vaccines and the spread of new variants.
That means “there is an increased risk of losing another summer tourist season,” Jack Allen-Reynolds told Capital Economics. “That would put a huge dent in the Greek economy and substantially delay recoveries in Spain and Portugal.”
The travel company TUI offers sun vacation packages in Greece and Spain, but with extensive cancellation provisions to attract prudent customers. Places that can be reached by car, such as the German islands in the North Sea and the Alps, benefit to some extent, as they offer the chance to isolate themselves. The German Association for Holiday Homes says that popular locations are already 60% reserved for July and August.
Thailand, where about a tenth of the population depends on tourism for its existence, requires a two-week quarantine for foreigners at designated hotels, which costs about $ 1,000. So far, only a few dozen people a day choose to visit. Tourist arrivals have dropped to below 7 million in Thailand in 2020 and are estimated to reach just 10 million this year from 40 million in 2019.
The Indonesian resort of Bali has deported dozens of foreigners and began restricting foreign arrivals since January 1, as its number of coronavirus cases has exceeded 1 million.
Gerasimos Bakogiannis, owner of the Portes Palace Hotel in Potidaia in the northern Greek region of Halkidiki, said it would not even open for Western Easter on April 4, but would wait a month for Greek Orthodox Easter on May 2 – and hopefully the beginning of a better summer.
“If this year is like last year, tourism will be destroyed,” he said.
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McDonald contributed from Beijing and Smith from Indianapolis. Elaine Kurtenbach contributed from Bangkok and Costas Kantouris from Thessaloniki, Greece.