All southern EU member states, which predominantly rely on tourism for revenue, will bear the brunt of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will not only negatively impact the European tourism industry but the world as a whole, Paolo Borchia, a member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2020) All southern EU member states, which predominantly rely on tourism for revenue, will bear the brunt of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which will not only negatively impact the European tourism industry but the world as a whole, Paolo Borchia, a member of the European Parliament, told Sputnik.
"It must be borne in mind however that the 'blow' on the European tourism industry will have repercussions of equal magnitude at the global scale. It is not just European hotels and restaurants that may run out of business. Stopping people's movement to and from the European continent will impact the global airline industry to a similar degree, as well as non-European tour-operators and travel agencies," Borchia, who is also a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, and a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in the European Parliament, said.
Borchia added that all southern states in the European Union relied heavily on tourism, which is a key factor in their GDPs. Italy, where tourism is a cornerstone of the economy, has already started to see COVID-19 seriously impact its tourism industry, Borchia said.
Tourism also plays "a fundamental role" in the other geographical groupings of the bloc, according to the parliamentarian.
"It is clear that we are racing against time [in the European Union], and the longer it takes to stop the pandemic, the higher the price all main economic sectors -- first and foremost tourism -- will have to pay," he said.
As the whole globe plunges deeper into crisis and isolation, Europe's tourism sector expects the number of visitors to plummet at unprecedented rates. In early March, chief of the European Commission's Internal Market Thierry Breton said that the EU tourism industry was due to suffer losses of roughly 1 billion Euros per month.
