Vaccine passports to bring back Hungarian tourism?

According to Hungarian tourism experts, domestic tourism can start in April, but foreign tourists are not expected before May-June 2021. This year is rather about rearranging everything the coronavirus left behind.

According to the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, catering places will be able to reopen with about 200 thousand people, which is nearly half of the number of employees before the pandemic – Portfolio says. For the reopening, they still need wage subsidies from the state and exemptions until the coronavirus restrictions will not ease.

Hotels cannot accept guests – except for business travels – and restaurants only offer takeaway services until 11 January. Until 11 February, the sector receives wage subsidies and exemptions, but according to the head of the association, Tamás Flesch, support from the state needs to be prolonged to keep the employees. The Hungarian government was supporting the tourism sector with 800 billion HUF (2,228,010,729 EUR) in 2020.

It seems possible to reopen the industry after Easter, but only for domestic tourism. In the case of foreign tourists, it depends on future travel restrictions, for example, whether they need to prove that they have been vaccinated or not. A lot depends on when crowds of people start getting vaccinated, and the kind of permissions one will need to travel abroad.

A lot depends on the airlines too; for example, the Australian Qantas already stated they will only accept vaccinated passengers. Still, the major airlines might stick to just negative coronavirus tests.

So far, the vaccine in Hungary is free and voluntary, and we unsure about anything happening to those who do not get vaccinated.

According to Flesch, whether people can be obliged to be vaccinated, imposes a lot of questions.

According to Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister’s office, regulations that differentiate people based on whether they are vaccinated or not – for example with a vaccine passport – are likely to come not just in Hungary but everywhere in Europe.

Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister, was earlier talking about creating a certificate for those who have been vaccinated which is in accordance with the EU’s plan about a digital passport.

Source: Portfolio