by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:30 AM ET, Tue June 23, 2020
Tourist attractions in Europe are looking to entice travelers-including Americans-to return to their facilities as the European Union opened its borders to member nations on Monday.
According to The Los Angeles Times, attractions such as the Palace of Versailles in France are hoping that travelers from all around the world will also begin coming back when international arrivals are permitted on July 1.
Officials from the French attraction said around 13 percent of visitors to the palace before the coronavirus pandemic were American. Now, Versailles went from selling 27,000 tickets a day to approximately 4,500.
"We want to turn the page, forget this disease, which we have beaten, and get back to normal at Versailles," Palace of Versailles curator Catherine Pegard told the LA Times. "This is important because we want to say to American tourists: 'Please come back.' Versailles embodies the relationship between our two countries, and we are feeling the absence of U.S. visitors."
While social-distancing guidelines limit how many people can enter the palace, travelers are still being cautious. There is hope, though, as local hotel owner Frederic Vandendriessche said there is a growing interest from travelers in returning to the region.
"The bookings have started coming in," Vandendriessche said. "Right now, it's mostly Belgians and British, as well as the French, of course. We've had many American guests in the past, and we're hoping when the borders open to international visitors they'll come back."
France is dependent on the tourism industry, as the estimated $62.3 billion the country earned in revenues accounted for seven percent of the GDP and directly or indirectly employed two million people.
Travel is pivotal to most European nations, with tourism accounting for 10 percent of the economies in Spain and Italy, and almost 20 percent in Greece.
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