European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Sunday that he hoped Europe will have a summer tourist season this year, supported by a ramp-up in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Breton, who heads the European Union’s executive’s vaccine task force, reiterated on RTL radio and TV channel LCI that the European Union should deliver 420 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by mid-July, enough to allow the bloc to reach collective immunity. FILE PHOTO: A man dives at Agios Nikitas beach on the island of Lefkada, Greece. REUTERS/Dimitris Rapakousis “We have to shift to the next gear,” he said of the EU’s vaccination campaign. “This will be the price for having a tourist season that I hope will be comparable to last year’s, which in the end wasn’t so bad in the context ...
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Europe’s airlines and travel sector are bracing for a second lost summer, with rebound hopes increasingly challenged by a hobbled COVID-19 vaccine rollout, resurgent infections and new lockdowns. Airline and travel stocks fell on Friday after Paris and much of northern France shut down for a month, days after Italy introduced stiff business and movement curbs for most of the country including Rome and Milan. The setbacks hit recovery prospects for the crucial peak season, whose profits typically tide airlines through winter, when most carriers lose money even in good times. “If there’s no confidence there, demand just doesn’t come back,” said Dublin-based Alton Aviation consultant Leah Ryan, who expects the bad news on vaccines and lockdowns to hurt already weak bookings. FILE PHOTO...
Read MoreThe European Union is going to unveil the plans to reopen summer travel with a new coronavirus pass intended to help revive the bloc’s multi-billion tourism and leisure industries that have been pulverised by the pandemic. The proposed, EU-wide “green digital certificate” would collate information on vaccinations, tests and COVID recovery to let travellers cross borders freely again after a year of curbs that have left beaches and famous landmarks deserted. FILE PHOTO: Two empty beach chairs are photographed at San Agustin Beach amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Gran Canaria, Spain. REUTERS/Borja Suarez The 27-member EU’s executive will also put forward an option to allow in outsiders with proof of vaccination, including those inoculated with Russian, Chinese o...
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has achieved what many mayors across Europe have tried and failed to do: wipe out tens of thousands of Airbnbs from city centres and so help lower rental costs for locals, in some places by as much as 15%. While Europe’s cities have long welcomed tourists, critics say the surge of properties listed on short-lettings site Airbnb in recent years had priced many locals out of their own housing markets, turning historic neighbourhoods into soulless spaces. Property management companies and landlords contacted by Reuters in cities including Lisbon, Barcelona, Prague, and Venice said the collapse of tourism in the pandemic meant some hosts had now replaced holidaymakers with mid- to long-term tenants, moved in themselves, or given up properties altogether. FILE PH...
Read MoreUp until late January Terry O’Toole was fielding a trickle of enquiries from Irish holidaymakers happy to settle for another summer at home in one of the cottages he manages in the scenic west coast region of Connemara. But when a government minister said on radio that it was very unlikely Irish people will be able to go on foreign holidays this summer, “the trickle became a torrent”. Skis are seen in the Romme alpine ski resort near Borlange, Sweden February 6, 2021. REUTERS/Simon Johnson From Connemara cottages to Berlin houseboats, Sweden’s ski slopes to UK activity parks, holiday accommodation is being snapped up by cautious domestic tourists already resigned to another staycation summer, amid fears of foreign travel bans and quarantines. Availability is very tight, said O...
Read MoreThe tower at Trbovlje Power Station used to billow smoke out of its neighbouring chimney from its summit 360 metres into the sky. Now no longer operational, two of the world’s leading climbers in Janja Garnbret and Domen Škofic came together to tackle the tallest chimney in Europe in their native Slovenia. It stands as the highest chimney in Europe but, from 2014, it has not been operational. The route plotted out for Garnbret and Škofic was also the largest artificial climbing route in the world, designed by specialists and IFSC route setters Katja Vidmar and Simon Margon. Venue of the Trbovlje Chimney in Trbovlje, Slovenia // Jakob Schweighofer/Red Bull Content Pool There were 13 pitches to tackle in all, the easiest of which were graded at 7b, while six were graded 8 and abov...
Read MoreUkraine’s biggest ski resort Bukovel in the Carpathian mountains is fully booked until the end of year as Ukrainians have sped to it instead of other foreign resorts that have been shut due to coronavirus-linked restrictions across Europe. An aerial view shows the ski resort Bukovel amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) near the village of Polianytsia in Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Ukraine December 27, 2020. REUTERS/Sergiy Karazy Bukovel’s management said the resort had already been booked at 80% capacity through January. Bukovel, which sits 920 meters (3,000 feet) above sea level and covers five mountains in western Ukraine, attracts two million visitors each year. A tourist from Kyiv, Anton Luzhnyh, said he used to go to France to ski. “Why am I here? Because f...
Read MoreThe Brussels stage makes a comeback Brussels performing arts, which have remained in the wings in recent months due to the health crisis, are now more ready than ever to get back on stage. From theatre to dance to jazz, all disciplines are heading back to the stage, to the delight of an audience eager to discover something new. These last eight months have had a major impact on the cultural milieu. The Brussels stage came to a standstill. Although not totally ... Backstage, programmers, artists and set designers were busy concocting an original, diversified and cutting-edge programme. Here is an overview of the major events for autumn. Let's Get Some Air Festival Now more than ever we are experiencing a desire to escape! Mission accomplished with the "Let's Get Some Air" fest...
Read MoreBrussels is a real hub of creativity and a haven for artists and collectors. Contemporary art can be found in the most beautiful parts of the European capital, thanks to the city’s countless institutions and art galleries. Contemporary art will make a comeback in September. Exhibitions and events will throw the spotlight on artists from different walks of life and disciplines. Brussels’ institutions, art galleries and artist collectives are pulling out all the stops to deliver a high-quality programme. Whether they are indoors, outdoors, or even online, these activities will satisfy everyone's curiosity. KANAL - Centre Pompidou, the Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain, La Loge, CENTRALE, Wiels, MIMA and many others play host to a vast array of high calibre exhibitions and performances...
Read MoreMSC Grandiosa became the first ship from the MSC Cruises’ fleet to welcome guests back and the first ship to implement the Company’s health and safety protocol. The first guests began embarking MSC Cruises’ flagship in the port of Genoa, Italy, arriving at the cruise terminal according to their allocated time slots and followed the new universal screening procedures according to the Company’s own health and safety protocol, which includes a temperature check, medical review of a health questionnaire and an antigen COVID-19 swab test for every guest prior to boarding. After completing these steps and having received the results of the test while in the terminal, guests that were fit to travel then embarked the ship according to the new health and safety procedures, which includes...
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