EU tourism sector suffering losses due to coronavirus

The tourism industry in the EU member countries is suffering losses due to the spread of the coronavirus in the world, especially in China, where most travelers came from, said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, Reports informs referring to TASS news agency.

Breton said that in January alone, the losses amounted to EUR 1 billion.

Since January, the European tourism sector has lost 2 million travelers, which means EUR 1 billion per month, the EU commissioner noted.

He said that many Chinese tourists used to visit Europe; however, it’s been already two months that they stopped doing it.

Breton stressed that the Italian authorities allocated more than EUR 3 billion to support the northern regions of the country, most affected by the epidemic and the subsequent restrictive measures, in particular those introduced by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus, the economy of Italy and Germany may fall into recession, Breton noted, however, he did not specify the figures, saying that it is too early to talk about it.

The end of March will be the starting point when companies begin to sum up the first quarter of the year, the European commissioner explained.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities announced an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan city. The disease is caused by a new type of coronavirus, which received the official name COVID-2019.

To date, coronavirus infection cases have been identified in more than 50 countries.