ROME, 18 May 2020: Italy will reopen to travel 3 June, in the hope the country can salvage the summer tourism season after months of lockdown.
Italy is slowly recovering from one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world, bar China and the US. Italy relies heavily on tourism, and even with the threat of a second or third wave hanging in the air, the country needs to give the tourism industry a chance to recoup losses.
Italy will lift restrictions on travel within the country to allow domestic travel between provinces to start 18 May ahead of the 3 June opening for regional tourism.
Easing of travel measures will be limited to just residents in Europe’s visa-free Schengen area.
Italy enacted some of the world’s strictest lockdown measures in an attempt to slow the Covid-19 advance, but now some European medical officers fear that even with the strictest lockdown measures the disease will be among us for a considerable time to come.
Italy has the third-highest death toll in the world after the US and the UK, with over 31,600 fatalities due to the virus, although new Covid-19 cases have been steadily dropping.
