Възстановяването на туристическия сектор в ЕС – възможен ли е единен европейски подход?
Recovery of EU Tourism Sector - Is It a Single European Approach Possible?

Author(s): Dimitar Pehlivanov
Subject(s): Economy, Tourism
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: EU; Pandemic; Tourism; Governments Response; Recovery Measures
Summary/Abstract: Both in Europe and worldwide, the tourism industry has been hardly hit by the more than two-year COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on free movement, which are at the heart of tourism, have led to an unprecedented collapse in reservations, travellers, revenues and the entire economy. According to various estimates, the collapse is between 70 and 90% worldwide during the pandemic, tens of thousands of museums and other public spaces have been closed, and the World Tourism Organization predicts that between 10 and 20% of them will never reopen. During the pandemic, various measures have been taken at EU level to complement and coordinate national measures for tackling this disease, but also to push forward the fast recovery of the economy and tourism, in particular. Resolutions and recommendations were adopted at the level of individual institutions, many rules for redirecting financial flows to small and medium-sized businesses and all affected companies were changed. Undoubtedly, the largest financial and political instrument that the EU has created is the Recovery Plan with a total value of 750 billion euros. In the field of tourism in particular, a number of regulations related to the protection of passengers' rights have been changed, as well as a number of reliefs for airlines, sea, bus and rail carriers. Beyond any doubt, the pandemic has been one of the strongest challenge of solidarity and the EU's ability to react quickly since decades. Has the EU succeeded in implementing timely measures at European level and to what extent will they help to rebuild the tourism industry? We can answer part of this question right now, the rest we have yet to see.

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