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SICILY, Italy - With the coronavirus pandemic hurting the travel industry, one Italian city wants to reel tourists back in with an awesome deal.
According to The Sunday Times of the United Kingdom, Sicily wants to bring foreign tourists back by paying half the price of their plane tickets.
The paper said that the city will also pay for one in every three hotel nights and tickets to visit museums and archaeological sites.
This will reportedly be paid for using a 50 million euro reserve of funds.
Vouchers to take advantage of this deal will be available on Visit Sicily's website, the paper said.
Italy had the bad luck of being the first Western nation to be slammed by the outbreak, with their first case reported on February 21st. At the time, the World Health Organization was still insisting the virus was “containable” and not nearly as infectious as the flu.
On the eve of Italy’s first steps toward easing restrictions, the Health Ministry reported 174 COVID deaths in the 24-hour period ending Sunday evening — the lowest day-to-day number since the national lockdown began.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.