Africa and South America banned dry tour operators

Today, one of their colleagues will hand over the requests of the Cocolette sector to the ministers: “It is absurd to prevent trips to countries that are subject to very strict control”

Giovanna Mezzana

Grosseto. He will arrive in Rome this morning Daniel Tonani, the tour operator who decided to leave Milan for the capital on his bike: he has a document with him that he will present to the Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia And with the same degree of health Roberto Speranza Which also contains the wishes of the Grosseto tour operators – dozens – whom he met on Friday evening in Marina di Grosseto.

Where are we

The initiative began with a conversation in which about seventy Italian tourism companies were registered, including some from Grosseto. Those ordering bread from leisure travel are part of one of the economic sectors hardest hit by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, made up of professionals who have waited – with dignity and in silence – for the time to get back to work: it’s finally over. Come on but “full speed” is still an illusion. As if that weren’t enough, the closure of many destinations around the world – for those Italians who respect the rules – has sparked a kind of hidden unfair competition. “Although many destinations are inaccessible – he says Stefano Cocoletti, tour operator from Grosseto – we receive photos from clients who, through triangles for example from Switzerland, have been able to reach unreachable destinations. I’m talking about pictures from Namibia, Tanzania and the Maldives, and you just have to look at the Facebook groups dedicated to African fans to get a sense of the situation.” Not lacking in desire and resources to travel, but the Italian operators – and thus also from Grosseto – were left with crumbs.

the list

The Ministry of Health divided tourist destinations into lists: for example, there is a list C related to European countries that – with the green corridor – can be reached without difficulty; There is a D-list, for non-Europeans, «where the interesting destinations for us Italians – explains Coccoletti – are limited to Jordan, Dubai, Canada and from November the US; For example, Japan, New Zealand and Australia will also be included, but these countries have “closed” to tourism. Then there is List E “which includes the rest of the world and we are talking about goals that can only be reached for work, family reunification and for health reasons”; In the E list there are, for example, both Africa and South America, interesting destinations for the Italian tour operators’ turnover and “the French and Germans – as Coccoletti asserts – are starting to move again”. Well, “We ask the ministers for whom the ban has been lifted from List E, that the ministries advise / discourage tourist travel to certain countries but lift the absolute ban. We ask for reciprocity with respect to France and Germany ».

in support

“We have always protected legality and do not send customers to ‘prohibited’ destinations – notes Coccoletti – however, we ask the government to know what criteria these lists are made up of. You can get to Spain and England, where there have been many cases of Covid, and you can’t Travel to Namibia, which has a population of three million and is three times the size of Italy, which has very few infections, is concentrated in the capital, which is not a tourist destination.In Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe Airport controls (unlike Italy) are very strict , a double dose of the vaccine is required, the swab.” Not only that: the tour operators also have two other non-secondary requests: the renewal of the sector’s no-obligation surplus fund, which will expire soon, at least until June, and the arrival of liquidity support for the sector, which was halted in July last year .

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