European tourism scrambles to salvage summer as lockdowns ease

There are no tourists at Vila Gale's resorts right now, and the home page of the company's website urges visitors to #STAYHOME.

Still, Portugal's second-largest hotel chain is busy: staff are stocking up on sanitisers, gloves, masks and thermometers, re-arranging dining tables to keep guests at least 1.5 metres apart, and drawing up a la carte menus to replace buffets.

It plans to reopen its hotels from June, joining a scramble by Europe's tourism industry to salvage what business it can from this summer season as coronavirus lockdowns begin to ease.

"We have to endure the situation and get some revenue this summer," said Vila Gale executive board member Goncalo Rebelo de Almeida. "I hope ... that will at least allow us to pay fixed costs. And then we will bet on it returning to normal in 2021."

Across the continent, from Portugal's Algarve to the...

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