Covid-19 Emergency. Proximity tourism as seen by an Italian tourist guide who works in Lucca, Tuscany.
Forty-eight hours before the lockdown, I had what could be considered a vision. I wonder how many of my colleagues also had the feeling that a deep-seated crisis would ultimately hit the entire tourism sector of Italy and the rest of the world in general. If I had the same foresight in regard to gambling, I would be a millionaire. Unfortunately the latter is not the case and I can only ascertain with bitterness that my premonition was correct: we are jobless or almost so. I say almost because that perception along with the ample time at my disposal to ponder what we could possibly do under these conditions, pushed not only me but my entire team at Turislucca to find solutions to the problem. It was clear from the start that organized tour groups from outside Europe (the...