Business

The collapse of Italy's tourism sector amid coronavirus pandemic

Rome (Italy), Sep 23 (EFE) - (Camera: Álvaro Padilla) The millions in losses suffered in the tourism sector in Italy and Spain as a result of the coronavirus pandemic can be recovered to some extent if both governments design recovery plans and utilise part of the aid they will receive from the European Recovery Fund. In an interview with EFE, the president of the Italian Government Tourist Board (ENIT), Giorgio Palmucci, explains this further. FOOTAGE OF INTERVIEW WITH GIORGIO PALMUCCI, ITALIAN GOVERNMENT TOURIST BOARD (ENIT)Translation: "We have had a recovery of tourism from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (which represents for Italy 30 % of its total international tourism), for the mountain and lake areas", especially the north of Italy"."On the contrary, the cities dedicated to culture and art are suffering a lot, especially because American and Asian tourism are missing. Milan, Rome, Florence and Venice are in a really complicated situation because above all of foreign tourism in a particular they lack American tourism"."We calculate that the crisis of the whole sector will have a penalty in the GDP of about 5.5%, while if we look only at the weight of tourism itself the decline will be 2-3%.""I am sure that the different ministries, not only the Ministry of Tourism, when designing the projects to be financed by the Recovery Fund, will be well aware of the effect they can have on the recovery of tourism".