Blue Capri emerges from the pandemic blues

Record ID: 1614656

  • Title: Blue Capri emerges from the pandemic blues
  • Date: 4th May 2021
  • Summary: CAPRI, ITALY (RECENT - APRIL 28, 2021) (REUTERS) VIEW OF MULTI-COLOURED BUILDINGS ON THE COAST OF THE ISLAND FROM BOAT BOAT DRIVER POINTING HIS FINGER DURING BOAT RIDE TOWARDS BLUE GROTTO, SAYING (Italian): "There is one of (Roman Emperor) Tiberius' villas." VIEW OF CAPRI'S COAST ROWING BOAT ATTACHED TO BOAT, USED TO ENTER THE BLUE GROTTO FISHERMAN ON FISHING BOAT WAVING V
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2021 08:46
  • Keywords: Blue Grotto COVID-19 Capri Capri Mayor Marino Lembo Italy coronavirus health island luxury tourism vaccine
  • Location: CAPRI, ITALY
  • City: CAPRI, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EBJOVGN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Additional edit of drone footage of Capri available: 5051-HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/ITALY-DRONE (Delivered 30/4)
    The lure of the Blue Grotto, sparkling seas, five-star hotels, and fantastic food will not be enough to tempt tourists to the Mediterranean island of Capri this year.
    Instead, vaccination passports, the EU’s digital health pass scheme, and agreements between countries are going to make all the difference for international travel and the survival of business owners.
    Vincenzo Iaccarino, 57, has been rowing tourists around the Blue Grotto for 33 years, just like his father did before him. But 2020 was the first time he saw his illuminated treasure so empty.
    On a spring morning in late April, Iaccarino laid down on his back as he entered the cave through its tiny opening in majestic cliffs, guiding his way through with the help of metal chains attached to the cave’s walls to get inside despite the high sea level.
    Pre-covid, between 1,800-2,000 tourists would board rickety rowing boats every day to visit the island’s most popular attraction, a natural sea cave tucked under the cliffs on the northeast edge of the island where the water is a glistening bright blue.
    For Iaccarino, although it was wonderful rowing around the 60-25 metres (197-82-foot) cave alone accompanied only by the sound of his oars gliding through the sparkling blue water, it was also a reminder that no visitors means no income.
    “It is ‘bella ma nonballa,’” he said, meaning “it’s beautiful but it doesn’t dance (doesn’t work)”, his voice echoing from the cave walls.
    In normal summer years, between 20-25 boats of tourists would be packed into the cave, chattering away, with their phones out, trying to get the perfect shot in the five minutes they are allowed to spend inside after queuing for hours.
    But in 2020 there was a drop of 70-80% visitors. The grotto has been closed since October and Iaccarino, who is the president of the Blue Grotto boat drivers, was still not sure when they will be able to start their tours again.
    Even so, like many of the islanders, he was confident this year would be different.
    “We hope this year will be much better, I’m optimistic and I hope, I hope that we will work. Because another year like last year, it would do us a lot of harm,” he said.
    There are only some 14,000 residents on the picturesque 11 square kilometres (6.8 square miles) island that lies in the Gulf of Naples in southern Italy.
    It lives and breathes from tourism. Before the pandemic, up to 3 million tourists visited per year.
    In 2020 the number dropped by 68%, according to data by Campania’s tourism agency, with the American customers that are so crucial to Capri’s livelihood a distant memory. Europeans were limited to only a couple of summer months before the second wave hit.
    Now, the island is near-empty, with just the sound of boats bobbing in the harbour which locals hope will soon be packed with tourists getting Instagram-perfect pictures of the multi-coloured buildings nestled below the mountain by the crystal blue sea.
    Like Iaccarino, local businesses say they cannot survive another summer like 2020 and are pinning their hopes on schemes that are in the works to get travel back on its feet.
    The EU has said vaccinated Americans can visit from the summer, a sigh of relief for Capri, while Europe is racing to launch a digital health ‘Green Pass’ scheme in June to save the holiday season.
    Scuba diver and sailor Gennarino Alberino, 86, is known as a living legend on the island after he discovered Roman statues at the bottom of the Blue Grotto in the 1950s. He owns a company that has some 35 ‘gozzi’, traditional wooden boats that have been used by Capri fishermen for centuries, that take tourists on boat tours of the island with their expert knowledge. These boats are parked and have had no customers for months.
    Italy has yet to give an official opening date for international travel unlike some of its neighbours. Curbs on European travellers requiring five days of quarantine and mandatory testing both before arrival and at the end of their isolation period are in place until at least May 15.
    Greece, for example, has rolled out vaccinations to islands with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants ahead of a formal opening of the tourism season on May 15.
    Italy’s vaccination campaign got off to a rocky start, like much of the EU. As of April 29, more than 5,000 Capri residents had been vaccinated. The island’s mayor Marino Lembo said they plan to inoculate workers of hotels, shops, and bars who travel from Naples to make the island as safe as possible.
    Capri has been a tourist resort since Roman times when it was the favourite retreat of Emperor Tiberius and went on to become a luxury holiday destination frequented by the world’s rich and famous.
    The likes of Sylvester Stallone, Elton John, and Jackie Kennedy are fondly remembered by local restaurants. Brigitte Bardot made the harbour famous by wandering across it barefoot after disembarking a ferry. In more recent years, Jennifer Lopez has become a regular, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were given a standing ovation at a restaurant, and it's where Kylie Jenner celebrated her 22nd birthday.
    In a testament to the island's opulence, the main shopping street is lined with luxury brands such as Dior and Gucci rather than souvenir shops, waiting for their loyal wealthy customers to return to their favourite holiday destination. Before coronavirus, these narrow, winding shopping streets would have been packed but now only a handful of locals wander by, not batting an eyelid at the designer outfits on display.
    The thought of a less packed-but-still-in-business Capri would be a very positive outcome for the mayor.
    “We are optimistic, the world has changed and many negative things have happened but, looking to the future, I believe we will come out of this situation slowly, respecting the rules. I am certain that we will get back and offer a different kind of tourism, and if this new tourism is quieter and less crowded it will be even better," Lembo said.
    One of the island’s seven five-star hotels is the Punta Tragara, a terracotta-coloured building perched high on the coast with stunning panoramic views that overlook the famous Faraglioni rock formations that stick out from the crystal blue sea. It was a villa before it opened as a hotel in 1974, and hosted Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill during the Second World War.
    Inside, the circular stairs that lead to the luxury accommodation are covered in pins and bubble wrap, the swimming pool is empty, and chairs and tables of the bar are stacked up and covered in plastic as it refurbishes before reopening. Before coronavirus, they would already be open and busy with clientele until the end of October.
    "..what is a bit different this year is we have greater anxiety than normal because obviously there is a general uncertainty on what the holiday season may or may not bring," the hotel’s 59-year-old general manager Paolo Federico said, inside one of its empty luxury suites.
    "But I can sense a positive spirit, a spirit of recovery, so for the upcoming month of May when more or less all of the island’s businesses will reopen, this gives me hope and maybe this anxiety will not be part of our baggage anymore,” he said.
    During the high season from June 1 to the end of September, rooms start at 950 euro a night and climb up in price to 7,000 euros for a penthouse suite. These prices dipped slightly last year in a bid to get more clients.
    The hotel would usually be between 90-95% full in the summer season, last year it was just over 60%. Americans make up around 45% of their customers, followed by Brits and Germans.
    But Federico, who has worked at the hotel for 30 years and is a Capri native, has already had bookings for the summer months of this year from keen Brits and Americans. Like most of the hotels and beach establishments on the island, they will re-open in the middle of May.
    “There is a whole world that wants to come to Capri, that has never stopped thinking about it, and that has never stopped strengthening their desire to come,” he said.
    “Capri is back,” he promised, smiling with his eyes above his mask.
    (Production: Antonio Denti, Fabiano Franchitti, Emily Roe)
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