OBSOLETE COVID THREAD Will camino routes in France open first before the camino routes in Spain (i.e. Camino Piemont/Piamonte)?

[The Kolbist]

Hypothetically and this is just my opinion, it might take at least a year or maybe 2 before Spain in general will be open for tourists including pilgrims. Will France be able to open the albergues before Spain does? I'm thinking as an alternative to our planned summer Del Norte Camino to do the Camino Piedmont from from Narbonne to Lourdes sometime late this year. We are only allowed to re-schedule our cancelled flights to any date before Dec 31 this year before we lose the cost of the tickets.

 

[Deleted member 67185]

Hypothetically and this is just my opinion, it might take at least a year or maybe 2 before Spain in general will be open for tourists including pilgrims. Will France be able to open the albergues before Spain does? I'm thinking as an alternative to our planned summer Del Norte Camino to do the Camino Piedmont from from Narbonne to Lourdes sometime late this year. We are only allowed to re-schedule our cancelled flights to any date before Dec 31 this year before we lose the cost of the tickets.

Given that the third largest contributor to Spain's economy is tourism, if your opinion holds true, it is hard to imagine how Spain can survive economically as it exists today. Nor can the infrastructure that supports tourism suffer such a long closure without being devastated.

The EU will not be in a place - with Greece, Italy, and some other concerns - to supplement Spain's tourist businesses with funding. The Spanish government will not be able to do it because it will suffer a 11 to 20% decrease to its GDP, and there are so many social programs, like healthcare and job loss assistance, that will require massive outlays of cash from that type of shutdown.

As the global experience with COVID-19 progresses, and the issues of epidemiology and infection control become clearer over the next few months, I think we may see a quicker opening to tourism than many think right now.

 

[Deleted member 67185]

Hypothetically and this is just my opinion, it might take at least a year or maybe 2 before Spain in general will be open for tourists including pilgrims. Will France be able to open the albergues before Spain does? I'm thinking as an alternative to our planned summer Del Norte Camino to do the Camino Piedmont from from Narbonne to Lourdes sometime late this year. We are only allowed to re-schedule our cancelled flights to any date before Dec 31 this year before we lose the cost of the tickets.

For my flight arrangements for Camino Portuguese for late-September, I won't cancel anything until the first or second week of September. If I need to cancel at that point with my refundable tickets, I'll either take the refund or reschedule for later in 2021.

So if I were in your shoes, with only one change of ticket available, I would wait until the last possible minute the airline allows, to make any changes. My thinking is if things are still up in the air before the end of summer, then I would not risk trying to schedule for a late fall Camino in case the Fall season is still shut down.

 

[The Kolbist]

For my flight arrangements for Camino Portuguese for late-September, I won't cancel anything until the first or second week of September. If I need to cancel at that point with my refundable tickets, I'll either take the refund or reschedule for later in 2021.

So if I were in your shoes, with only one change of ticket available, I would wait until the last possible minute the airline allows, to make any changes. My thinking is if things are still up in the air before the end of summer, then I would not risk trying to schedule for a late fall Camino in case the Fall season is still shut down.

I think the Spanish government has already given a directive that technically put Spain closed to tourism until the end of 2020. Flattening the curve for a long time might take a toll not only on Spain but the whole world. It boils down to vaccines, some estimates puts one whole year for vaccine testing and another year to mass produce it. Even if for Spain to lockdown from tourists for just 1 year might have a severe impact on their economy. We are still planning to do the Del Norte route next year and might just do Camino Piamonte from Narbonne to Lourdes if France opens up. Of course, we need to do our homework in planning carefully.

Thanks Dave

 

[DoughnutANZ]

Given that the third largest contributor to Spain's economy is tourism, if your opinion holds true, it is hard to imagine how Spain can survive economically as it exists today. Nor can the infrastructure that supports tourism suffer such a long closure without being devastated.

......

As the global experience with COVID-19 progresses, and the issues of epidemiology and infection control become clearer over the next few months, I think we may see a quicker opening to tourism than many think right now.

Our opinions on this are, of course, only that (opinions). However the published plans of various governments may provide a clue to "current" thinking. New Zealand is somewhat unique in that our current plan is to eliminate Covid 19 within our country and so our plans are, obviously, coloured by that. In addition, 15% of NZ's GDP has come from inbound tourism and so in that sense we share some factors with Spain.

NZ's plan is based on levels of trust and involves keeping our border closed for some time, possibly through to the end of this year. In the meantime we will initially promote internal tourism (once we are through all levels of lockdown).

Once we have experience of internal tourism and are confident that the movement of people does not create a second wave of infection then we will selectively open the border to countries that we trust. The NZ and Australian governments have already started initial talks on this. Australia looks like it is having similar success as NZ in controlling Covid 19 and provided that this success continues then we are likely to see a bilateral agreement on opening the border between our countries, possibly with mandatory quarantine at the beginning and then moving to some sort of certification.

Once we have experience of success with Australia then the government plans to negotiate further bilateral agreements with selected countries based on our government's perception of the ability to trust that an external government has control of Covid 19 and that there is no community transmission within the selected country.

There are no current plans to reopen our border to all countries, especially to those countries where Covid 19 is being allowed to circulate in the community.

We are currently prepared to sacrifice most of our inbound tourism industry so that we can open up the rest of our economy. 15% is a hard hit but it beats a 35-50% hit.

Of course other countries may have different plans and current plans are subject to change as the situation changes.

 

[NorthernLight]

I think what NZ is contemplating is what many will want to do. NZ and Australia have nice moats around them, so controlling the border is easier than for most.

I suspect Europe will open to internal tourism long before they open to foreigners. The camino will see European pilgrims long before North Americans are allowed back.

But what do I know....