There’s no other way of saying it: summer of 2020 has been extremely peculiar. But with every great challenge comes a new set of solutions, as well as fresh ideas and deeper understanding of why we do what we do.
This June and July we had our first virtual events – “ACCESS Luxury Travel Show – Digital” for the Central and Eastern European countries and also for Russia and CIS countries. They were successful and inspiring and we are already looking forward to repeating them in the future. But while we are enjoying connecting with all of you online, we are also eagerly waiting for the news regarding “old-school” travelling. And today we would like to share the latest (and very exciting) news from the CEE with you.
First of all, let’s see which countries have already opened its borders. Croatia is ready to welcome tourists from EU countries (including the UK) without restrictions. Same goes to Greece, Italy, Maldives, Dubai, Spain and Portugal. As for outside world, CNN has reported, that on July 1st the European Union announced it would be reopening its external border to 15 countries outside of the bloc “in a bid to boost its travel industry”. The list included Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, China, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. We strongly recommend checking each country’s official websites and news sources to stay up to date on all the travel-related topics and temporary rules and restrictions as the situation is developing as we speak.
Airlines were quick to adapt to the ongoing changes. SMARTWINGS, big Czech airline company, resumed flights from Prague to 15 beach destinations. CZECH AIRLINES, known for its affordable flights to city holidays, has also resumed flights in early July. Polish airlines LOT has also restarted sending its customers to summer destinations such as Croatia, Montenegro, Greece and many other European cities. Huge Hungarian airline company WIZZAIR reopened many of their flights and even introduced new routes in June and July. QATAR AIRWAYS, TURKISH AIRLINES and EMIRATES that all create important links between the CEE and reach exotic destination (Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Thailand and more) are going back to normal business throughout the summer.
2020 made us rethink our travelling patterns and reevaluate what we are looking for when planning our next holidays. As various researches show, neighbor countries look way more attractive to a lot of travelers both from economical and practical points of views. Of course, there are still lots of travelers, who decide to go as far as the restrictions would allow. In other words: everyone is ready to start exploring the world again. And we’re happy to see tourism coming back with renewed vigour and richer mindset.
Whatever you do this summer, don’t forget to enjoy it!