The United States economy is losing about $198 million per day due to the current entry restrictions that have been in place for over 16 months now for several world countries, including here the 26 Schengen Area countries, the UK and Ireland.
In order to protect citizens’ health amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the US Department of State introduced four proclamations within months in 2020, which have temporarily suspended entry for all persons who visited any of the Schengen Zone countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa, in the previous 14 days before travelling to the YS, after the US authorities considered that these territories had been highly affected by the Coronavirus, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Even though European countries’ governments have often urged the US government to abolish the ban imposed on European countries, such a step has not been taken yet.
Unlike 2019 levels, at present, the US has banned entry for over half of its top 20 most significant markets worldwide in terms of inbound spending, which has caused a profound decrease in the US’s travel and tourism sector last year.
Such figures have been revealed by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in its recent report focused on inbound international travel spending. The report has stressed that the US continues to keep its doors closed to countries that made a significant contribution to the US economy regarding the visitor spending in 2019, before the spread of the Coronavirus, including:
- the UK (8 per cent)
- Germany (4 per cent)
- France (3 per cent)
- Italy (2 per cent)
According to WTTC, the successful rollout of vaccines in countries such as Germany (62 per cent fully vaccinated), France (62 per cent fully vaccinated and Italy (63 per cent) has led to the easing of travel restrictions.
Still, the WTTC has stressed that while some countries have tightened their restrictions for unvaccinated travellers from the United States, the latter should open their…