The news that Europe will welcome back U.S. tourists this summer may be uplifting for those of us expecting visitors here — but it’s not likely to revive the continent’s struggling tourism sector, according to Bloomberg.
Related: Vaccinated Americans To Be Allowed in Europe This Summer
That’s because the majority of tourists visiting European countries during the summer… are other Europeans, Bloomberg columnist Andrea Felsted writes, citing an analyst at Bernstein.
Bernstein’s analysis found that Western European visitors to other European nations far outnumber American tourists visiting Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal, according to Bloomberg.
In Portugal, in fact, visitors from Western Europe made up 60% of arrivals in 2019, while those from the U.S. only accounted for 2.1%, Bernstein found. Even Chinese visitors account for more tourism in Portugal, making up 3.1% of arrivals in 2019, according to Bernstein’s analysis.
The situation isn’t helped, of course, with the U.S. State Department putting many European nations — including Portugal — on its “Do Not Travel” list last week. The list isn’t binding, meaning Americans are free to ignore it, and it does include 80% of the world’s nations, but still.