Anyone visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which reopened on June 25, will have to take the stairs – all 674 of them – because the lifts are being kept shut at France’s iconic monument. After months of lockdown many Europeans are dreaming of a summer holiday, but holidays will look a bit different this year. Breakfast buffets, guided tours and club nights may well be out; masks and temperature checks, meanwhile, are definitely in. Tourist attractions, from Rome’s Colosseum to the Hermitage Amsterdam museum, have introduced a slew of measures to minimise the risk of a new outbreak of coronavirus, which has killed about 170,000 people in western Europe. In Italy, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore are turning to technology to enforce social distancing, providing visitors with electronic devices that vibrate if they get too close to one another. In Barcelona, authorities are launching an app to help tourists in Spain’s second city plan their itineraries and avoid congestion and queues. Countries like Italy and Spain, where tourism accounts for about an eighth of GDP, are desperate to lure back visitors as they scramble to salvage the summer season. But there are fears that a return to mass tourism could see a second spike in the pandemic. “This is the most difficult situation the Spanish tourism sector has faced that anyone can remember,” said Jose Luis Zoreda, vice-president of tourism lobby group Exceltur. Paris sparks an al fresco dining revolution after Covid-19 lockdown Tourists in Spain, which reopened its borders to most European visitors last week, will see changes from the moment they check in. Some hotels are introducing measures like air purifiers, thermal cameras to check guests’ temperatures, arches which spray them with disinfectant, and mats with a bleach solution on which to clean their shoes and suitcase wheels. In the morning, guests will not help themselves to their favourites at the breakfast buffet but will be served by staff behind screens (Madrid has recommended getting rid of buffets altogether). Hotels will ask guests to use mobile apps for everything from ordering a cocktail to settling bills in order to reduce physical contact. Many museums and monuments now require visitors to book tickets online for specific time slots, undergo temperature checks, don masks, and stick to a one-way route. This could be really good for the future of tourism. It’s about taking care of the tourists, taking care of the local community and local economy, and not just running for a few hours to every place Isabella Ruggiero, president, AGTAR, on smaller tour groups With cultural attractions forced to slash daily visitor numbers, the Dutch Museums Association estimated the country’s museums will lose € 5 million to € 7 million (US$5.6 million to US$7.9 million) a week. The United Nations’ cultural body, Unesco, said more than 10 per cent of the world’s museums may never reopen, while others will have to put new projects on hold. Coronavirus closures will have a lasting impact on major institutions such as the Prado, in Madrid, which derive most of their income from tourists, it said. Europe’s theatres have similar concerns, with Shakespeare’s Globe in London, a replica of an Elizabethan theatre, warning it may fold without financial help. In Spain, there are fears for the future of flamenco venues that rely on tourism. A famous flamenco bar in Madrid, Casa Patas, closed down this month, blaming the pandemic. For clubbers, the summer looks set to be a washout. Spain’s Balearic Islands – renowned for their hedonistic nightlife – have banned dancing at clubs and beach bars. Some of the islands’ superclubs, which can hold thousands of revellers, are staying shut after being told they can only host up to 100 people outdoors. Small clubs must cover the dance floor with tables and chairs. Italy’s clubs can reopen from July 15, but rules vary between regions. Clubbers in tourist hotspots including Rimini and Riccione will have to dance two metres apart – and only at open-air venues. Drinking at the bar is out, masks are compulsory indoors and bouncers may step in to enforce social distancing. Vibrant club scenes and big music venues in London, Berlin and Amsterdam remain dormant. In Berlin, bars and restaurants have to retain customers’ contact details in case of a Covid-19 outbreak. England’s pubs and restaurants have been told to do the same when they reopen from July 4. Although Italy has been open to tourists since June 3, its cities remain quiet. Rome’s Trevi Fountain, normally jammed with sightseers, is almost empty, and the street entertainers have yet to return to Piazza Navona, one of the city’s most magnificent squares. Italy is bracing for a 44 per cent fall in visitors in 2020 compared with last year, with numbers unlikely to rebound to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2023, according to national tourism agency ENIT. “We don’t expect too many tourists to come … people are scared,” said Isabella Ruggiero, president of Rome tour guide association AGTAR. The onset of the pandemic in March could not have been worse timing for Rome’s 3,000 registered guides, who work long hours for eight months of the year to tide them over the quiet winter period. Most were fully booked to September. “In a couple of weeks all those tours were cancelled. For the whole year,” Ruggiero said. “The coronavirus changed our lives.” Tourism has been dominated by large groups in recent years, particularly from China and the United States. Airport arrivals from both countries are down more than 80 per cent, according to ENIT. Tour groups will have to be smaller and itineraries carefully managed in cities such as Venice, Rome and Florence, whose cultural sites and narrow streets are not conducive to social distancing, Ruggiero said. Get away from it all on these eight tiny European islands But there could be a silver lining, she added, with smaller, slower and more focused tours potentially paving the way for a more responsible form of tourism in Italy’s historic cities. “This could be really good for the future of tourism,” Ruggiero said. “It’s about taking care of the tourists, taking care of the local community and local economy, and not just running for a few hours to every place.” During the lockdown, guide and archaeologist Ferdinando Badagliacca took his tours online, offering interactive sessions on everything from Italian wines to Rome’s fountains and Pompeii’s splendours. He did his first proper tour last week but has few bookings. “It’s going very slow,” he said. “I used to tell my clients ‘tourism will never die in Rome’. Reality has shown me that’s not true.”