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Venice considers a new tourism model after COVID-19 lockdown

The Coronavirus crisis is prompting authorities in the Italian port of Venice to reconsider its mass-tourism model. Up to 30 million people visited in 2018. Now, like so many other places, the city is deserted. "We've gone from one extreme to the other," explained Matteo Secchi of the Venessia Association. "Here, a few months ago, we couldn't even pass each other. Now the streets are empty." There's a certain charm about the empty waterways and plazas, albeit of an eery nature. But it's an enchantment that comes at a high cost to the cities businesses, especially for those who make their money directly from tourism. Marianna Serandrei is the owner of the Capisini Hotel Group. "In the beginning, we were talking about one to two months, then 3 to 4 months, said Marianna. "Many talk about a resumption of activity at the beginning of next year. We see that the major movements are for February and March 2021." Time for a rethink The city's reliance on mass-tourism meant Venetians could rarely greet each other on the street. They were overwhelmed by visitors, many of whom arrived on vast cruise liners. Now, according to the city's deputy mayor Simone Venturini, it could be time to consider a softer model, even if it means physically limiting the number of visitors. "This will be an opportunity to move towards intelligent tourism. With tourists who take the time to understand and get away from the frenetic tours of other times." It will be a difficult move to make, given the city's reliance on tourism, but for now, admittedly under terrible circumstances, the streets belong to Venetians.

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Middle East tourism fair in Dubai cancelled over coronavirus

Dubai’s Arabian Travel Market, one of the Middle East’s biggest travel and tourism fairs, has been cancelled this year due to the new coronavirus outbreak, organisers said on Sunday. The exhibition was in March rescheduled to June 28 to July 1 at Dubai’s World Trade Centre from its original dates of April 19 to 22. “After consultation with our key stakeholders and after listening to our industry, ultimately it became apparent that the best course of action, and with everyone’s best interests in mind, is to postpone the event to 2021,” organisers said on the event’s An online event will be held from June 1 to June 3, they said. The exhibition halls of the world trade centre were last week turned into a field hospital to treat patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

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Turkey to launch coronavirus-free certification program to promote safe tourism

Turkey is preparing to launch an internationally recognized certification system for “coronavirus-free” touristic areas and facilities to revive the industry, the tourism minister said, adding that domestic tourism could return back to normal by late May. Speaking to broadcaster NTV, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the ministry had been working with relevant ministries and industry representatives to decide on the guidelines and regulations for the certification system. Ersoy said the ministry would begin handing out “coronavirus-free” certificates to tourism-based businesses where no contact with the virus had been detected, and the necessary safety and hygiene measures have been confirmed. Ersoy noted that the industry could begin the recovery process in late April with domestic tourism destinations and added that the normalization of inbound tourism would be possible by the end of May. Erkan Yağcı, chairman of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers' Association, said the certification measures had been welcomed by an industry seeking guidance for normalization efforts amid the pandemic. He noted that the certification would help hotels and other service providers to assure travelers of their hygiene standards, which Yağcı said would be the most important factor in post-pandemic tourism. Commenting on recovery trends in upcoming months, Ülkay Atmaca, head of Turkey's Professional Hotel Managers Association, said the industry could begin seeing mobility during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the feast marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, at the end of May. Atmaca said the return of international travelers was tied to a swift recovery in domestic tourism: “Domestic travelers need to start vacationing to show foreign tourists that Turkey is a safe and hygienic holiday destination.” The outbreak has put tens of millions of jobs in the global tourism and tourism sector at risk. The World Travel and Tourism Council last month said the pandemic was putting up to 50 million jobs in the industry, with travel likely to slump by a quarter this year and Asia being the most affected continent. International travel is expected to fall at least 10.5% this year, the biggest year-on-year drop, the industry consultancy Tourism Economics recently said. Meanwhile, Turkey announced in March a TL 100 billion ($14.7 billion) stimulus package to support businesses and industries affected by the fallout of the outbreak. It supports several companies and sectors as well as the tourism sector by paying personnel salaries and postponing loans and taxes. The tourism accommodation tax was also suspended until November to support the sector.

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Remote tourism is the latest online innovation to cope with the coronavirus global quarantine measures

The Faroe Islands are offering remote tourism, where web users can control a real life tour guide to trek around the remote archipelago's quaint towns and volcanic islands. The innovation is meant to sustain global interest in the North Atlantic islands, which have recently come to rely more on revenue from tourism. And it might help locked-down people around the world broaden their horizons beyond their apartment walls. "If you ask them to go left, they go left. If you ask them to jump, they jump. If you ask them to run, they run,” said tourist board spokesman Levi Hanssen. "You’re sort of steering this person and deciding what you want to see and where you want this person to go.” Wearing helmet cameras, local guides provide commentary to web audiences remotely, guiding them across the Danish semiautonomous territory, which has had less than 200 confirmed COVID-19 cases and no deaths. Nearly 50,000 people joined the first four hour-long tours, which are offered for free, said Hanssen. Most viewers were trying to land one of the minute-long slots for controlling the guide, available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tours started Wednesday and will run until at least April 25. They are webcast on a tourist board website and on its Facebook and Instagram accounts. Online tours come with new risks, Hanssen says. On one trip, a web user tried to make the guide jump into the ocean but he stopped in time. "It’s very surreal to know that you’re walking around here in the Faroe Islands being controlled by someone on their sofa or even on the toilet. Who knows where they are,” he said. Previous tours have visited the territory’s second largest city, Klaksvik, and other picturesque locations. There are plans for a kayak tour, a horse ride and more. "We’re going to try and see if we can get on a helicopter and see if we can get people to steer a pilot,” Hanssen said. The Faroe Islands is a rocky 18-island volcanic archipelago that’s home to 50,000 people, most of whome live in Torshavn, the capital. Fishing and aquaculture are the traditional industries, but tourism has been growing in the last five years, with around 120,000 people visiting in 2019. The tourism industry ground to a halt after authorities urged travelers not to come until at least May 1. The project is a way to help the industry rebound once the pandemic ends. "The idea is to whet people’s appetite and get them to want to come and experience this in real life,” Hanssen said.

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Home Ministry extends visa of stranded foreigners till May 3

The Home Ministry on Friday extended regular and e-visas of all foreigners who are stranded in India due to the coronavirus lockdown till May 3 on gratis basis. The Home Ministry also said the visa granted to those foreigners, except diplomats and UN officials, who are supposed to come to India, will remain suspended till May 3, an official statement said. Regular visa, e-visa or stay stipulation, of such foreign nationals who have been stranded in India because of spread of COVID-19 in many parts of the world and also due to travel restrictions imposed by Indian authorities, and whose visas have expired or would be expiring during the period from February 1 midnight to May 3 midnight, would be extended till midnight of May 3 on ‘Gratis’ basis, after online application by the foreigner, the statement said. The home ministry said that after considering the matter, it has been decided to extend the period of providing consular services by the Office of Foreigners Regional Registration Officers and Foreigners Registration Officers to foreign nationals, presently stranded in India. Exit to such foreign nationals, if so requested by them during this period, will also be granted up to 14 days beyond May 3, i.e. May 17, without levy of overstay penalty. The Home Ministry has also decided to extend the suspension of all existing visas granted to foreigners, except to those belonging to diplomatic, official, UN and international organisations, employment and project categories, till May 3, it said. The home ministry has further directed that all incoming passenger traffic in India through any of the 107 immigration check posts shall remain suspended till May 3. However, no such restriction would apply to vehicles, planes, ships, conveyance, trains and other carrying any goods and supplies whether essential or non-essential. Their crew, sailor, driver, helper, cleaner and others shall be subjected to thorough medical screening for COVID-19. In order to remove confusion, the home ministry on March 28 had granted consular services on gratis basis to foreign nationals, presently residing in India due to travel restrictions in the context of COVID-19 outbreak, till April 30. The government had first extended the regular visa and e-visa of foreigners who are currently in India and unable to leave the country due to coronavirus outbreak till April 15. Subsequently, the home ministry extended it till April 30. Several thousand foreign nationals are in the country since the imposition of travel restrictions and are unable to exit the country during the validity of their visa. The ministry has also provided the essential consular services through the office of the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers and Foreigners Registration Officers to foreign nationals. Exit of such foreign nationals, if so requested by them during this period, will be granted without levy of overstay penalty, the ministry had said earlier. The lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic. It was further extended till May 3.

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Tourism stakeholders, travel agencies set to receive aid amid COVID-19 crisis

The Department of Tourism (DoT) recently announced its recovery plans to aid the private tourism sector in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Following appeals by the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) to provide aid to local travel agencies bearing the brunt of the pandemic, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said that the government’s Tourism Response and Recovery Program has been outlined and is underway. “To cushion the impact, the DoT and its attached agencies, even before the lockdown, laid out the response and recovery plan during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country with the tourism sector taking a direct hit early on,” Secretary Puyat said, noting that the DoT will be extending a wide range of assistance not only to tour operators but to the entire travel and hospitality sector. Ms. Puyat noted that some points and suggestions raised by the PTAA have been incorporated in the program, along with additional incentives lined up by the DoT and its attached agencies to help tourism-related businesses and their workforce get back on their feet. The country’s tourism sector has recently made headlines for its outstanding contributions to the Philippine economy, with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) commending the sector last year for its significant growth in recent years, emphasizing its large contribution to the economy. Based on results from the WTTC’s Benchmarking report, it said the travel and tourism sector was the largest sector in the Philippines in 2018, contributing $82 billion to the country’s economy or contributing nearly 25% share to total gross domestic product. Among the government’s recovery plan for the sector is the implementation of a moratorium on the collection of accreditation fees from new and renewing applicants from Tourism Enterprises (TEs) and Tourism-Related Enterprises (TREs) for the year 2020. The DoT and the Tourism Promotions Board have also waived the participation fees in international fairs and exhibitions between now and the end of 2021. The DoT also led 20 sweeper flights as assistance to embassies helping many of the travel trade’s clients leave the country. As of April 14, 2020, the DoT was able to extend assistance to 19,898 foreign tourists and 1,456 domestic tourists. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), Business Process Outsourcing companies, and bank workers weathering the crisis, meanwhile, were provided rooms in collaboration with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. As of April 13, 2020, the DoT was able to find a total of 13,116 rooms in the National Capital Region for OFWs and 25,687 rooms for BPO agents, bank workers, and health frontliners. As part of the recovery program, the Department of Labor (DoLE) was notified of the list of displaced workers from various tourism-related enterprises for cash assistance. Along with other industries, employees of tourism enterprises will be provided with a P5,000 – P8,000 wage subsidy per worker under Department of Finance’s program. Tourism frontliners were also recommended to become eligible for Hazard Pay for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine, especially those who work at accommodation establishments that house health workers and repatriated OFWs and risk contamination to COVID-19. The DoT has also been communicating with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to provide rehabilitation financing support like extending low-interest loans for tourism enterprises severely affected by the COVID-19. Relative to this, the DBP has identified the tourism industry under COVID-19 as qualifying under its program called Rehabilitation Support Program on Severe Events or RESPONSE, which aims to provide rehabilitation financing support through low-interest loans to business, which have been adversely affected by calamities. The LBP will also assist tourism stakeholders under its program called: Rehabilitation Support to Cushion Unfavorably Affected Enterprises by COVID-19 (I-RESCUE) Lending Program. Workers in the sector are also set to receive aid as part of the government’s response. Appropriate representation has been made with the Social Security System (SSS), PAGIBIG Fund, and PhilHealth for the deferment of tourism workers’ contributions. Upon these representations, PhilHealth has agreed to extend the deadline to remit the members’ savings/contributions until two weeks after the lifting of the ECQ without any penalty. PAGIBIG has also agreed to extend its deadline of payment of premium contributions for the first quarter of 2020 to 30 April 2020. SSS agreed to extend the deadline for the remittance of contributions until June 1, 2020. On the other hand, for the requested deferment of corporate income tax payments by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, as well as other interventions which require the action of other government agencies, the DoT has made the necessary representation with the proper government agencies for these interventions and will follow up on behalf of the travel industry. And while concerns regarding rent and utility discounts, and travel agency commission from airlines are normally matters governed by contracts between private parties, and not subject to government intervention, they can be subject to legislation that can provide financing or subsidies. Such matters are to be raised by the DoT to Congress, which is also currently considering a bill granting a fiscal stimulus package to the tourism industry. – BJORN BIEL M. BELTRAN

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