Sicily will PAY half the price of tourists' flights, a third of their hotel bill and more

If they're taking about "holidaymakers" or people "on holiday", they probably don't mean subsidizing (relatively expensive) flights for Americans. Anyhow, it's an interesting idea but I don't believe money is the biggest barrier that will prevent people from traveling to Sicily or elsewhere - the psychological need to feel safe has more to do with it. Sicily is one of the more affordable destinations throughout Europe to begin with, and has (had) dirt cheap flights from other parts of Europe. It seems to me that, instead of subsidizing travelers, maybe they could put the money toward buttressing the weak tourism infrastructure in general (straightforward things like better signage, improved websites with multiple languages tailored more to tourists, etc). That will yield longer-term benefits in an area where the tourism infrastructure is way behind that of Northern Italy and other European countries.

From everything I know about Southern Italy, they are not out of the woods by far and the health system in the south can't afford the type of apocalypse as occurred in Northern Italy.

Lets hope it starts soon!

When this is over, I will gladly pay double to help them save their economy!!!!

Wow - they’re meeting travelers halfway - that’s a great offer! More chocolate in Modica could be in the future.

I like the plan, but let's be realistic. The article says thus is to start AFTER the lockdown. No mention of when AFTER is going to be, but it sure isn't going to be soon with the issues Italy (and the rest of the world) is still trying to handle and recover from.