This Country Will Pay Tourists $3,000 If They Get Coronavirus During Their Stays
Image via Shutterstock
Uzbekistan is pretty confident that tourists won’t catch coronavirus when they visit.
The country has announced that travelers who contract the virus while vacationing there will be given US$3,000 to cover medical expenses in a local hospital. Uzbekistan’s president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has also signed the decree to promote the new movement, ‘Uzbekistan: Safe Travel Guaranteed’, which is a sanitary and epidemiological safety system to ensure tourists travel is a safe and hygienic environment.
“We want to reassure tourists they can come to Uzbekistan,” the country’s tourism ambassador to the UK Sophie Ibbotson said in a statement. “The government is so confident that the new safety and hygiene measures being implemented across the tourism sector will protect tourists from COVID-19 that the president is prepared to put money where his mouth is: If you get COVID-19 on holiday, we will compensate you.”
However, to receive compensation, tourists must explore the country with a local tour guide.
Uzbekistan has had 19 coronavirus-related deaths among 15,000 cases. It is reopening its borders, after a lockdown imposed since March, as an effort to restore tourism numbers.
David Goodger, a tourism expert, told CNN Travel that the “‘Uzbekistan: Safe Travel Guaranteed’ campaign was a clever way of reassuring tourists concerned about their health—and who may also have less disposable income after the pandemic.”
[via News.com.au, opening image via Shutterstock]
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