Cooperation between the various European regions is essential to control the pandemic and reopen tourism in a coordinated way.
The dilemma is to establish the conditions for this collaboration. A goal that a group of researchers from universities in Grenada and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria set out to solve it.
They looked at how to get to agreements between European regions, taking into account that some have a high dependence on tourism compared to others. The research analyzed 312 European regions and concluded that there are several conditions that can contribute to achieving minimal cooperation between regions in order to avoid the risks of COVID-19.
They emphasize that it is desirable for agreements to be concluded separately between a small number of regions. In addition, the fact that there are many differences in tourism dependence between regions favors the achievement of higher levels of cooperation, compared to the fact that all regions have the same tourism dependence.
This paper, which used social simulation models based on artificial intelligence and the theory of mathematical games, was published in the international journal Scientific Reports, of the group Nature, under the title "A collective risk dilemma for tourist restrictions in the context of COVID-19".
The analysis proposes a model that represents the dilemma of cooperation or not between regions.
The analysis proposes a model that represents the dilemma of whether or not to cooperate between regions and analyzes the conditions under which negotiations should take place (regions highly dependent on tourism or not) so that they cooperate sufficiently.
A region "cooperates" when tourism is closed to avoid risks and "does not cooperate" if the activity is not closed and continues to operate normally.
"These findings can guide policy makers to facilitate agreements between regions to maximize tourism recovery."
In this context, according to the study, any region would be tempted not to cooperate if all the others cooperated, as there would be no risk of growth in that non-cooperative region, because all the others "behave well" and the pandemic is under control.
However, if all or most of them adopt this attitude, the risk of the virus spreading, the health system and the economy collapsing would be inevitable.
For the authors of this research, Manuel Chica, from the University of Granada, and Juan María Hernández Guerra and Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the decision on the grouping of regions to maximize agreement is a relevant issue.
During the videoconference of the members of the European Council that took place between 25 and 26 February 2021, it was discussed launching a coronavirus vaccination passport that could make the trip to the European Union (EU) possible. It would also be a first step towards the recovery of the aviation industry, which is also collapsing.
In conclusion, we can say that a collaboration between states and regions must exist. The idea is that the same form of collaboration cannot be applied to all states and regions in Europe or the world. Some need more of these collaborations to revive the tourism industry, for example. Others need other types of collaborations. What is certain is that a country that will refuse to cooperate on the grounds that it is well in isolation, will end up with a destroyed economy and the pandemic will still not escape.