The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) told Europe’s tourism ministers last week that it has “one single request”: clear rules for mobility to facilitate the restoration of travel – rules built on co-ordination between countries and testing rather than vaccines.
The call came during the EU Tourism Ministers Meeting in Portugal, as the WTTC urged the gathering of governmental leaders to save a Travel & Tourism sector that has been left in ruin by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A major issue our sector faces is that different countries have different protocols that are not integrated with one another,” said WTTC President and CEO Gloria Guevara. “We believe that the key to recovery is to restore international mobility – and we must work together to do so. It is critical that we have a clear roadmap to resume economic activity in a safe and secure way…”
That roadmap, she emphasized, should be based on rapid and cost-effective testing supported by technology through interoperable health digital passes or certificates rather than “ineffective” quarantines.
“WTTC believes that while the vaccination rollouts are providing relief to the sector, vaccines should not be a requirement for travel. Instead, we should focus on testing, mandatory mask wearing and enhanced health and hygiene measures to bring certainty and confidence,” she said.
Governments should also forgo a system of country-based assessment to individual based assessments, she said, pointing out, “Not entire populations are infected, and we must not treat them as such.”
In summary, she said, “We have one single request: We need to see the restoration of international mobility. We need clear rules for mobility. Europe must define protocols, so it’s clear how mobility can be safely resumed within the EU, to the EU and from the EU.”
IATA
In an unrelated media briefing late last week, IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac concurred with the WTTC’s sentiment.
“The vaccine roll-out and the increase in testing capacity – particularly as governments show renewed interest in rapid antigen tests – is good news. But until governments ease travel restrictions a significant improvement is unlikely,” he said, adding, “We have asked governments to share their plans and benchmarks for re-opening… Understanding government plans is important because restarting an airline is not like flipping a switch. Airlines need to ready their crew and aircraft… On top of that, airlines will need time to market the potential services so that the re-start of operations will have some passengers.
“We understand how many people and jobs are counting on us to restart operations as soon as governments will allow. So, we want to ready from day one.”
According to WTTC data, 174 million jobs have been impacted globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.