COVID-19 certificates for international travel must be free, universally available, and non-discriminatory, the United Nations World Tourism Organization says. Moreover, such passes, must be limited in time and use, the UNWTO adds.

The declaration was made by the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, an independent and impartial body of the General Assembly of the UNWTO, which convened to assess the implications health certificates might have on tourism ethics as countries work to welcome back visitors and restart tourism.

The UNWTO weighed in on the matter, says committee chair Pascal Lamy, because it believes that “sanitary passes” may be required for the recovery of a global tourism industry that has been “bomb-shelled” by the COVID-19 pandemic and for which international travel is “indispensable to its recovery.”

To that end, Lamy says has taken the initiative to issue a recommendation on COVID-19 certificates for international travel describing the condition under which they are compatible with tourism ethics.

And while the nature of the passes should be left to the World Health Organization, Lamy says the committee concluded that such certificates can be compatible with ethical tourism, though their use needs to be proportionate, measured, and responsible.

The Committee members, drawn from tourism sector leadership, academia, and international organizations, adopted the Recommendation on COVID-19 Certificates for International Travel, the product of a series of consultations with experts and stakeholders from around the world.

Citing the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the related Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics, the Committee also recommended that “vaccines should not form part of vaccination holiday packages and must remain a global public good.”

“We hope,” Lamy concluded, “that (the recommendation) will provide a global ethical frame that will help a much needed a much-needed recovery of tourism.”