The comparison of tourist arrivals in EU countries during July-August

of 2019 and 2020 (thousands) ^*

 

Country name	Visitors during July-August 2019	Visitors during July-august 2020	Difference between July-August 2020/2019, %
Germany	9 331 109	3 642 912	39,04
Finland	784 728	129 474	16,5
Austria	7 847 000	4 876 100	62,14
Bulgaria	4 408 238	1 452 678	32,95
Greece	12 435 258	2 635 131	21,19
Spain	19 991 636	4 907 440	24,55
Netherlands	4 360 000	2 426 000	55,64
General in EU	59 157 969	20 069 735	33,93

^{_______________________________________________}

* Источник: Compiled by author based on the source [4]

According to the statistical data in the table, certain conclusions can be made. Thus, surprisingly, Austria received much greater attendance rate during peak summer season of 2020, than its neighboring country Germany, especially if converting the data into percentages: Germany’s visitor arrivals are –61% lower, while Austria with only –38% loss and superiority in more than a million visitors in comparison with Germany can be considered a record holder among the central and west EU countries. There are Multiple reasons why Austria succeeded more than Germany. First of all, while German government implemented the mask rejime and strict means for preventing further spread of coronavirus (for instance, people entering cafes were obligded to write their contact details in order to track the chain of infection in case of it) Austria did not see the necessity in those means. The mask rejime only entered into force on 20th of July. Moreover, Germany was jolted by various protests against COVID-19 restrictions and BLM movement support, which not only exacerbated the general situation with pandemic, but also worked as a push factor for tourists. Lastly, the German coronavirus testing systems were imperfect. For example, the major glitch occurred in Bavaria, which caused the loss of COVID-19 results for both: tourists and citizens. As an aftermath, the Bavaria’s first minister Markus Söder was criticized and that worked as a mistrust factor for tourists.

However, the country with most significant downgrade is Finland with –85% decrease of tourist arrivals. Despite the fact, that the summer season is not the highest in Finland (prevailing part of visitors is coming during winter season), the decrease is still more than in other European countries. Main reason for that is the border sealing policy. Russia closed its borders with EU on 28^th of March and Finland consequently lost the vast part of tourist segment represented by Russians. Moreover, Finland itself closed the borders on 27^th of July with the countries which seemed contagious to the government. These countries were Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, despite the fact, that the coronavirus pandemic spread equally along central European countries.

Although COVID-19 pandemic brought vast amount of negative news, still, there were some innovative and even positive events. In particular, new tourism trends started to take place in COVID-19 pandemic times. People started to travel more domestically, sufficiently increasing the domestic tourism sector popularity, which before the pandemic was not so efficient. The trend on traveling domestically have acquired its importance due to several factors. One of the most crucial ones is a simple fear of traveling abroad. Tourists were unsure about the coronavirus situation in other countries and instead decided to travel more domestic, revealing early forgotten places inside their homeland. Furthermore, restrictions about self-quarantine for two weeks on return still remained. These were the reasons why domestic tourism started to recover faster than the foreign one. In July, residents in tourists accommodation inside their own country were only 22% lower in comparison with July 2019.

One more trend which took its place during global pandemic outbreak is referred to Green Movement activists. One of few benefits brought alongside the pandemic was the record reduction of nitrogen dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, mainly appearing from often usage of planes and cars. Since the borders were sealed and the general quantity of charter flights was reduced to minimal, the climatic and natural balance slowly started to come back to normal. The comparison is clearly seen in comparison with 2019, when green gas emissions decreased on almost 17% [1]. Nowadays, vast majority of people either try to travel domestically or call upon the sustainability of huge tourism related companies in order to save the environment. All in all, the Green traveling trend takes place rapidly in tourism tendencies.

However, nowadays the general situation with COVID-19 pandemic has deteriorated due to the second wave. European countries reflected the destructive consequences of the first wave and eased restrictions, which lead to much more grievous consequences with the start of the Autumn season. The second wave began, and EU had to implement lockdown policy once again along with mass vaccine production. Inexplicably, but this served as the appearance of new very specific trend called “vaccine tourism”. Tourism companies from third-world countries started circulating tourism packages with flights, accommodation, meals and visits to healthcare centers [2]. A lot of people were seeking cure from COVID-19, especially considering the fact of a new coronavirus strain. That is why vaccine tourism is being a relevant tourism trend these days.

Therefore, despite all the destructive impact on tourism industry, COVID-19 pandemic provided a valuable impetus for generating new tourism tendencies and trends. Moreover, the tourism industry itself started to think about sustainability and providing mandatory healthcare means in order to prevent further spreading of the coronavirus infection. When the pandemic will be finally over, the changes to the global and EU tourism industry still would be inalienable.

 

List of references

 

1. Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement. Nature.com. – URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x

2. Thinking About Traveling Just to Get Vaccinated? You Need to Read This First. Fodors.com. – URL: https://www.fodors.com/news/coronavirus/thinking-about-traveling-just-to-get-vaccinated-you-need-to-read-this-first

3.  Travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Europa.eu. – URL: https://ec.
europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/travel-during-coronavirus-pandemic_en#documents

4. Visitor arrivals statistical data. Ceicdata.com. – URL: https://www.ceicdata.com/ datapage/en/search?search_query=visitor%20arrivals

 

 

В. А. Тихомирова

Научный руководитель Е. А. Блинова

(РЭУ им. Г. В. Плеханова)