Canada isn’t the only country facing urgent calls to drop pre-departure testing for travel. Earlier this week, senior leaders from US Travel Association and Airlines for America had a meeting at the White House where they once again stressed the need for the Biden administration to end the pre-departure testing requirement for inbound vaccinated air travellers.
After the meeting, US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement:
“It is long past time for the Biden administration to remove the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated air travellers to the US. While nearly all other US industries are operating without restrictions, the travel industry remains disproportionately harmed by this requirement, even though the science no longer supports it.
“Other countries with whom we directly compete for global travellers have removed their pre-departure testing requirements and reopened their tourism economies, putting the US at a serious competitive disadvantage for export dollars.
“Further, since the federal government does not require negative tests for entry at our land-border ports of entry with Canada and Mexico, it no longer makes sense to keep the requirement in place for vaccinated international air travellers to the US. While inflation continues to soar, the administration can take an immediate step in jolting America’s recovery efforts by repealing this outdated requirement.
“The time is now for the Biden administration to eliminate the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated travellers and fully reopen our borders.”
The issue will certainly be on the minds and tongues of delegates at IPW, US Travel’s premiere annual trade show gathering, which kicks off this weekend in Orlando.
US Travel says in a recent survey it conducted of vaccinated international travellers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and India, more than half (54%) of international travellers polled said the added uncertainty of potentially having to cancel a trip due to US pre-departure testing requirements would have a negative impact on their likelihood to visit the US.