U.S. Travel Ban: This Is How It’s Costing Europe Billions
Europe's tourism-dependent economy is being hard hit by the lack of some 15 million U.S. tourists this summer. This due to the ongoing travel ban dished up by the EU last week. It's already hurting, with billions of dollars in losses predicted. Particularly in the countries who rely most heavily on them: France, Italy, Germany and Spain. But across the EU, the economic ripples are being felt.
US Is Europe's No. 1 Long-Haul Tourism Market
"Tourism contributes 10% to EU GDP and creates jobs for 26 million people," notes the European Union Tourism Trends report.
Europe is the world's leading tourist destination, it says. The 538 million foreign arrivals in 2017 represents a 40% share of international tourism (an 8% hike from 2016). Of these, Americans accounted for nearly 18 million travelers according to Skift. This includes those who were just passing through it notes, nonetheless a 12% year-on-year hike. (An upward trend which was predicted to continue, until COVID arrived).
