Europe to welcome back U.S. travelers, but timing and requirements still unclear

Brussels — American tourists could soon be visiting continental Europe again, more than a year after the European Union restricted travel to the 27-nation bloc to a bare minimum to contain the coronavirus. EU officials have said they're completing plans to allow Americans back this summer, depending on the course of the outbreak on both sides of the Atlantic.   The EU Commission, the EU's executive arm, will make a proposal soon to its member states but didn't say when exactly leisure travel could resume or whether a reciprocal approach will apply to Europeans wanting to visit the U.S., which has closed its doors to tourists from the continent.   Also, it was not immediately clear whether all U.S. tourists would have to produce proof of vaccination for entry, or whether a negative test for the coronavirus or proof of recent recovery from COVID-19 would be acceptable instead.

"These are among the questions we'll still need to figure out," European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz said. Jahnz said the EU's executive body is hoping to restore trans-Atlantic leisure travel "as soon as it is safe to do so." As CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reported from London, many European leaders would love to welcome American tourists back to help heal their COVID-battered economies. With more than 15 million Americans visiting Europe annually before the crisis, the prospect of U.S. travelers once more flocking to attractions like the Eiffel Tower, the canals of Venice or Germany's Brandenburg Gate would be welcome news for the continent's hard-hit tourism industry. EF Go Ahead Tours, a Boston-based company that offers small group tours to Europe and elsewhere, said it expects demand to be extremely high once Americans can visit Europe again.