Italy reopens borders with EU on June 3 without imposing a fortnight

Text by: RFI Follow

With all the anti-virus precautions applied in the country, from June 3 Italy reopens its borders to other European nationals and from the Schengen area, including Switzerland and Monaco. But, unlike Spain, the government, which wants to revive tourism, will not impose a fortnight.

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With our correspondent in Rome , Anne Le Nir

This is obviously encouraging news for the tourism sector which represents more than 13% of the national GDP and employs 4.2 million people. In 2019, Italy welcomed 93 million foreign holidaymakers.

But this year, in two months, tourism has already burned more than 20 billion euros. Hence the decision to reopen the borders to European tourists, from June 3, and without obligation of fourteen when they set foot on Italian soil.

For the moment, certain countries remain rather cautious, notably Germany and Austria which still consider Italy as a country at risk of contamination with Covid-19. But the president of the Council Giuseppe Conte, made a point of specifying that this measurement could be re-modulated if the epidemiological curve started to rise again in the coming weeks.

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• Italy
• Coronavirus
• Tourism