新冠肺炎疫情使全球经济受到重挫,而旅游业更是受影响最严重的几个行业之一。为帮助陷入困境的旅游业,提振经济,欧盟计划逐步取消内部边界限制,重启旅游业。
Boys play football in Virgiliano Park, as the country begins a staged end to a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Naples, Italy, May 17, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
The world's biggest tourist playground has been roped off since it became a coronavirus epicenter, but as summer looms Europe is desperate to lift restrictions to get visitors pumping much needed cash into stricken economies.
自从欧洲成为新冠肺炎疫情中心后,这一全球最大旅游目的地的旅游业遭受重创。但随着夏季的临近,欧洲迫切希望解除限制,让受到疫情严重打击的经济体能从旅游消费中获得急需的资金。
Across the continent, various nations currently sitting behind the firewall of quarantines or sealed frontiers, are figuring out how they can once again welcome holidaymakers.
在整个欧洲大陆,目前正执行隔离措施或封闭边界的各国都在考虑如何再次欢迎游客前来。
Last week, the European Union unveiled an action plan to get its internal borders reopening, safely fire up its hospitality sector and to revive rail, road, air and sea connections that have been strangled during the pandemic.
上周,欧盟公布了一项行动计划,目的是重新开放欧盟内部边界,安全启动酒店业,恢复在疫情期间中断的铁路、公路、航空和海上交通。
It's a situation eagerly anticipated by millions of would-be travelers, desperate to enjoy a slice of European sunshine and culture after weeks or months being sequestered at home under lockdown.
数百万想要出门旅游的人热切期待这一天的到来。他们因封锁措施居家数周或数月之后,迫切地想要享受欧洲的阳光和文化。
sequester [sɪˈkwestə(r)]美[sɪˈkwestər]: 使隔绝
"We all need a break, especially after this confinement," Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, said. "We want to enjoy summer holidays, we would like to see our families and friends even if they live in another region, in another country.
欧盟内部市场专员蒂埃里•布雷顿说:“我们都需要休息,尤其是在这种封锁措施之后。我们想要享受暑假,我们想要见到家人和朋友,即使他们住在另一个地区,另一个国家。”
"But we want to be able to do so while staying healthy and safe because we know the virus will stay [with] us for some time."
“但是我们希望能够在保持健康和安全的前提下出门,因为我们知道新冠疫情还会持续一段时间。
Europe accounts for 50% of the global tourism market in terms of arrivals and has been particularly hard hit by the restrictions. Normally crowded cities such as Venice, Rome, Paris and Barcelona have stood empty.
就游客数量而言,欧洲占了全球旅游市场的50%,因此受封锁措施的影响尤为严重。威尼斯、罗马、巴黎和巴塞罗那等通常拥挤的城市如今空空荡荡。
A man wearing a protective face mask looks at his phone as he walks in a street in Nice during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in France, April 30, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
The EU currently has recommendations in place to all its member nations that they restrict all non-essential visitors from outside. But with infection rates dropping off in some countries, this looks set to change.
欧盟目前建议所有成员国限制所有非必要的外来游客。但随着一些国家的感染率下降,这一建议看来要改变了。
Some countries, such as Greece and Italy, are already naming specific dates. On Saturday, Italy announced plans to reopen its internal borders next month, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that many internal EU border restrictions would be lifted by June 15.
希腊和意大利等国已经在确定具体的解封日期。上周六(5月16日),意大利宣布计划下个月重新开放国内边界,而德国总理安格拉·默克尔表示,欧盟内部的许多边境限制将在6月15日前解除。
There's even talk of permitting special "green corridors" or "travel bubbles" that would allow certain countries with low or sharply declining infection rates to open up to a select few destinations until borders are fully reopened.
甚至有人在讨论批准特殊的“绿色走廊”或“旅游泡沫”,允许感染率低或急剧下降的某些国家向少数几个目的地开放,直到边境完全重新开放。
Those moves have been backed in the EU plan which proposes lifting restrictions between member states of "sufficiently similar epidemiological situations," in other words, the same rate of coronavirus infection.
这些举措得到了欧盟计划的支持,该计划提议解除“流行病学情况非常相似的”成员国,即新冠病毒感染率相同的成员国,之间的限制。
Visitors from outside the EU could still face an indeterminate wait though.
不过,来自欧盟以外的游客可能仍要等待,开放时间尚不能确定。
indeterminate [ˌɪndɪˈtɜːmɪnət]:adj.不确定的;模糊的
The EU's plan also sets out a roadmap for developing health and safety protocols for beaches, hotels, campsites, B&Bs, cafes and restaurants to protect guests and employees, such as allowing people to book time slots at the gym or swimming pools in advance.
欧盟的计划还为海滩、酒店、露营地、民宿、咖啡馆和餐馆制定健康和安全规程制定了路线图,以保护客人和员工,比如允许人们分时段预定健身房或游泳池。
It also aims to strengthen rules giving travelers the right to choose between vouchers or cash reimbursement for canceled transport tickets or package trips.
该计划还旨在加强相关规定,当交通车票或组团旅行取消时,游客有权选择赔付代金券或退还现金。
EU member states have also agreed to protocols to ensure tracing apps work across borders so that citizens can be warned of a potential infection with coronavirus while traveling within the bloc.
欧盟成员国还达成一致,以确保追踪应用程序能够跨边界使用,这样公民在欧盟境内旅行时就可以获得新冠病毒感染相关的警告。
"This is not going to be a normal summer, not for any of us," said Margrethe Vestager, the vice-president of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission."But when we all work together and we all do our part in the ways the Commission is setting out today, then we don't have to face a summer stuck at home or a completely lost summer for the European tourism industry."
欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会副主席玛格丽特•维斯特格说:“今年夏天将和往常不同,对所有人来说都是这样。但当我们齐心协力,按照委员会今天制定的计划尽自己的一份力量时,今年夏天我们就不必困在家里,欧洲旅游业也不会完全损失夏天的收入。”
While these new measures will help impose some order on a somewhat chaotic travel situation across the continent, it remains a fluid situation.
尽管这些新措施将有助于使整个欧洲大陆些许混乱的旅行状况恢复部分秩序,但旅游业局面仍然不稳定。
英文来源:卫报