Parisian tour guides protested outside the Louvre on its first day of reopening on Monday. The tour guide believed that the government had not done enough to help people who work in the tourism industry.

The iconic Louvre museum in Paris reopened this week after its closure nearly four months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic.Masks are compulsory, a one-way system is in place and numbers of visitors will be controlled, reports the BBC.

There will also be a spaced queue to view Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting. Some 10 million people come to what is thought to be the world's most visited museum each year, the majority from abroad.

But with tourism crippled by the ongoing pandemic and the European Union only opening its external borders for 15 nations so far, the staff at the museum fear visitor numbers could drop hugely.

The museum closed on March 13 and has reportedly lost 40-million euros (R769.3-million) in revenue since then. France lifted travel restrictions at European borders on June 15.

The other French icon, the Eiffel Tower, reopened on June 25 after a three-month closure, the longest since World War Two.

Meanwhile, The Louvre Abu Dhabi reopened at the end of June, more than three months after the art museum was closed under measures imposed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Visitors to the museum must book online ahead of time and will be allocated arrival time. They will be allowed to spend three hours inside the museum and must wear face masks and gloves. They will also depend on a mobile phone application for information on the artworks, as paper guides will not be available.

Abu Dhabi's Culture and Tourism Authority has said that the number of visitors at any one time must not exceed 40 percent of a museum's total capacity. The UAE's capital has been easing restrictions in recent weeks.

IANS