Europe's tourist trade flickers back to life

The tourist trade in and around Europe is cautiously, slowly, coming back to life.

Monday (June 1) saw doors open again around the region.

In Istanbul the city’s Grand Bazaar started trading.

Restaurants also reopened, and domestic flights took to the skies.

In Rome the Colosseum is welcoming visitors once more.

Over in Spain, cultural centres have also got the green light.

Bilbao’s Guggenheim one to be unlocked.

Nearly all beaches also back in business.

And it can’t come too soon. Figures out Monday showed Spain’s income from tourists down by a half in the first four months of the year.

Now the government plans to offer a guarantee of health in a bid to lure back travellers.

But a mask is the new holiday essential.

As beaches also reopened in Dubai on Monday, people there seemed to accept the new normal:

“Social distancing and mask and that's it."

Though easing restrictions is welcome, the industry is far from optimistic.

In France many small businesses say the summer season is beyond repair.

Rene Colomban runs a private beach there.

He says job losses are inevitable:

"I think we will, unfortunately, end up with fewer staff, because there aren’t enough clients to keep all the workers busy.”

For now though, at least some tourism businesses are reopening.

The prospect helped lift shares in travel companies on Monday.

The only question is, whether any tourists will now turn up.