Because traveling was hardly possible at Easter, many tourism companies are hoping for Pentecost: will holidays on the North and Baltic Seas be allowed then?
Many Germans prefer to stay in the country for their Whitsun vacation rather than wandering far away, as an evaluation of the HomeToGo holiday home search engine has shown, for example.
The North Sea and the Baltic Sea in particular are at the top of the list for many as potential travel destinations in Germany - but will hotels and restaurants be allowed to reopen until the holidays?
Baltic Sea vacation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - possible on Whitsun?
Baltic Sea, Mecklenburg Lake District or the island of Rügen: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is a very popular holiday destination among Germans. However, the country is also one of the strictest when it comes to
tourist entry
. These are not permitted - including day trips. On the Easter weekend alone, the police expelled hundreds of day trippers from the country. In addition,
hotels, inns, guest houses and other tourist businesses are
closed for tourist purposes
.
It is not yet clear whether this means that no holiday on the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will be possible on Pentecost either. The situation in the state is currently deteriorating, since Monday (April 19) there has been a hard lockdown again. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the 7-day incidence is 141 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants (as of April 23). Second home owners and campers from other federal states should leave the country by April 23 at the latest. The tightened measures apply for four weeks, i.e. until shortly before the weekend of Pentecost.
The hope of openings at Whitsun has not yet been completely given up in the local tourism industry, as Tobias Woitendorf, head of the MV tourism association,
says
according to the
Ostsee-Zeitung
: "Perhaps the situation will change by then." However, he assumes that there will be easing first in other areas, such as schools. Nevertheless,
the tourism association is working on an opening
plan that will be presented to the country in the next two weeks. We are talking about a step-by-step plan that first provides for vacation in one's own state before it is reopened for all German citizens. Woitendorf does not believe in test openings in a few regions. At the beginning of April he already told the
editorial network Germany (RND)
that a mask requirement in public areas, contact tracking via app and mandatory testing could be sensible measures for openings in tourism on Whitsun.
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North Sea vacation at Pentecost 2021: Hope for model regions and summer
While Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania relies on strict rules in the corona pandemic, in Lower Saxony one hopes for openings as part of model projects, as they have been planned or already implemented in Schleswig-Holstein. For example, Cuxhaven was
selected
as one of
twelve model regions in Lower Saxony
in a first selection round
. The start was postponed due to the introduction of the uniform corona rules by the federal government in the Infection Protection Act.
The East Frisian Islands hope for a
long-term opening
and have accordingly submitted a plan with a strict test regime. “So far we have not received any feedback on how our concept is assessed by the state,” reported Göran Sell, managing director of Ostfriesische Insel GmbH, according to the
Hannoversche Allgemeine
. The island of Juist is enjoying surprisingly good booking figures over the Whitsun holidays. Marketing director of the island, Thomas Vodde, expects a further increase as soon as it opens properly. “I'm hopeful for the summer,” he says - especially because the number of infections has already improved in the past at higher temperatures.
(fk)
Also read
: Camping madness due to Corona rules: Allowed during the day, but not at night.
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