for a special COVID-19 pass. To get the pass, which comes in paper or digital form, people must prove they’re either fully vaccinated or recently recovered from an infection, or produce a negative virus test. Use of the pass could extend next month to restaurants and cafés.
Italy said that people will need a similar pass to access museums and movie theaters, dine inside restaurants and cafés, and get into pools, casinos, and a range of other venues.
At the Eiffel Tower, unprepared tourists lined up for quick virus tests so they could get the pass to visit the Paris landmark. Johnny Nielsen, visiting from Denmark with his wife and two children, questioned the usefulness of the French rules. “If I get tested now, I can go but then I (could) get corona in the queue right here,” Nielsen said, though he added they wouldn’t change their plans because of it.
Europe’s vital travel and tourism industry is desperate to make up after a disastrous 2020. International tourist arrivals to Europe last year plunged by nearly 70 percent, and for the first five months of this year, they’re down 85 percent, according to U.N. World Tourism Organization figures.
American, Japanese, and Chinese travelers aren’t confident it will be possible to visit…
