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Officially, the EU s more than yearlong ban on inbound travel from the U.S. and most countries outside the region remains in effect, but its members are not bound by that. Photo Credit: Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock.com
While the success of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the U.S. has fueled optimism about a strong summer travel rebound, tourism officials in Europe say that slower progress on vaccines there coupled with new surges likely means any widespread return of Americans won t happen until late summer.
Tom Jenkins I don t see anything happening in terms of Europe as a whole [opening] before late July, said Tom Jenkins, CEO of the European Tourism Association. There s a possibility that July may yield something, but most people are looking at August, September.
By Sylvia Hui, Associated Press
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The Tower of London has been closed since the pandemic began. Photo Credit: Petr Kovalenkov/Shutterstock.com
LONDON (AP) The cobblestones are deserted at the Tower of London. A biting wind blows and there is no sign of life. Even the storied ravens are nowhere to be seen.
England s top paid attraction, which normally draws more than 3 million visitors a year, has been closed for all but a dozen weeks since the pandemic began and international tourism to London came to an almost-complete standstill.
The quiet has been surreal for Amanda Clark, one of the Tower s famous resident guards known as Yeoman Warders, or Beefeaters. The affable Clark, a retired sergeant major, lives for interacting with people: directing tourists, telling them stories, posing for their selfies. Before March 2020, she would have been doing that happily every day as crowds streamed into the attraction, also home to the Crown Jewels.