From Tuesday, Dutch people coming to Germany will have to quarantine for five days if they are not fully vaccinated. A quarantine obligation also applies to not fully vaccinated Germans returning from the Netherlands. And that messes up the holidays of some German tourists.
Mass cancellations by Germans have not yet occurred. But the number of cancellations could increase, says Jeffrey Belt of Hiswa-Recron, which represents the interests of entrepreneurs in recreation and water sports. “It could well be that families are now reconsidering their holiday destination. We have to wait and see.”
Indeed, the new measures pose problems for German families. The quarantine obligation on return also applies to all children, even the youngest. “You can wonder how fair that is, because the vaccines are not yet available for children in Germany,” says NOS correspondent Judith van de Hulsbeek. “I can imagine parents thinking: we’ll go somewhere else.”
Bookings filled by Dutch people
The Netherlands Bureau for Tourism and Congresses (NBTC) will monitor this weekend how many cancellations the tourism sector receives from German guests. Last week, when the Netherlands turned red on the European infection map, the agency saw few cancellations.
This reading is confirmed by Dutch hoteliers and owners of campsites. On the coast, where many Germans traditionally come, they are not too worried.
“This has an impact, but not the impact like the one at the end of September last year,” says director Stephan Stokkermans of Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk. “German families are only a small part of the total number of tourists here. And I think those lapsed bookings will soon be filled by Dutch people who want to come to Noordwijk for a weekend in good weather.”
At Landal Greenparks they see “slightly more reservation traffic”. “German guests who want to rebook their stay in the Netherlands to one of our parks in Germany or Austria”, says operational director Jeroen Mol. “But many guests already knew about the risk for a while when they made a reservation. We now don’t see people who, like earlier in the corona period, want to rebook in a panic.”
Mol also sees that vacant places are immediately taken over by Dutch guests – some of whom might have wanted to go on holiday in Germany.
–
