Even as second-wave COVID cases tick up in Canada and the World Health Organization announced the highest single-day increase of infections globally (307,930) on Sunday, calls are steadily mounting for Canada to ease border restrictions – albeit in a safe way – to allow a tentative tourism restart.

Changing the country’s mandatory 14-day quarantine protocols for arrivals is the prime concern as Canadians are now welcome in many destinations but face stringent and sometimes impossible stay-at-home measures when they get back – measures that not only dampen demand, but aren’t necessary, say critics.

On Monday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) praised new testing initiatives by Air Canada and WestJet as a step that will help eliminate the need for blanket quarantine measures, but warned that government must also intervene or else face that the economic damage caused by the pandemic will become permanent.

At the same time, the National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) reported that its recent letter-writing campaign urging Canadians to lobby their members of parliament in support of an urgent plan to safely restart travel and tourism generated more than 312,000 responses from across the country.

Among the measures put forward by respondents were:

• Rapidly establish a national framework to ease inter-provincial travel restrictions

• Clearly communicate to Canadians that they can travel safely by air to visit their favourite Canadian destinations

• Establish reciprocal border agreements with targeted safe countries

“The prime minister and his cabinet must take urgent action to support the thousands of business and employees across the country, in communities large and small, that depend on travel and tourism. We can safely restart our industry and take steps to ensure its financial viability through sectoral support, but the federal government must act now,” said NACC president and CEO Mike McNaney.

The NCAA echoed the claim made late last week by the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable (which represents the country’s largest cross-section of travel and tourism employers and stakeholders, including airports, airlines, hotels, travel agencies, boards of trade, and chambers of commerce, and of which NACC is a member) that the government must release “a clear plan” to support the safe restart of the travel and tourism sector, but do so based on inclusive dialogue with the industry.

“The results of this grassroots outreach show that Canadians believe it is possible, and necessary, to move forward in a responsible manner, and they have asked the government to (do so),” said the NACC of the letter-writing initiative.

Even IATA has weighed in, with association director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac stating, “‘There are alternatives to the quarantine measures currently in place that can both keep Canadians safe as well as revive the economy. The ICAO multi-layered approach ‘Take-off Guidance’ is one. The work that Air Canada and WestJet are doing on testing adds another dimension. It is critical that the Government of Canada acts on these before the economic and social damages become permanent and the public health consequences of mass unemployment become even more apparent.”

Montreal-based IATA warns that revenues generated by airlines with service to/from/within Canada could fall by $22.6 billion (70%) in 2020 relative to 2019, putting at risk nearly 410,500 Canadian jobs and some $39 billion of Canada’s GDP, which is generated by aviation directly and indirectly as well as by aviation-related tourism. It notes that air transport in Canada directly and indirectly supports some 633,000 jobs and that 3.2% of the country’s GDP is supported by the air transport sector and foreign tourists arriving by air.

Canadians tour operators queried by Travel Industry Today are uniformly supportive of a health-first policy when it comes to travel and a resumption of operations, with one stating, “We don’t want to be another Hurtigruten” – the Norwegian cruise line that began sailing again in July but suffered damaging publicity after 36 crew members tested positive for the virus, thus affecting passengers and port-of-call communities.

However, frustration is mounting. One senior executive at a major tour operator told us that, “all the precautions we are so slowly putting into place had precedence in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and South Korea at the very start of this pandemic and here we are in the seventh month of the pandemic with a myriad of provincial rules. Our government should be giving the green light to encourage travellers to the relatively safe British Caribbean islands. The 14-day quarantine for returning travellers is a disincentive to travellers and needs to be replaced urgently by proper contact tracing (which we have so much difficulty putting into place). Receiving dollars from the federal printing press is no substitute for the satisfaction and fulfillment of a good day’s work.”

Another industry exec believes that as long as the Canada-US border remains closed to non-essential travel – currently until Sept. 21 with the likelihood that the re-opening will be postponed further – that Canada will not follow the lead of other countries to create safe travel corridors for fear of antagonizing its American neighbours.

Others fear that Canada is waiting out the US election in November before making a move.

One exec, though cautious about COVID, still recalls being surprised at seeing continued, fervent travel demand in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 and wondering, “Are these people seeing what I’m seeing?”

But the sentiment was made clear by one consumer at a travel event on the night of the disaster, who said, “I’ve lived through war and depression and earned every right and privilege to travel and I want to travel. This is not going to set me back.”

The point, the exec mused, is that “sometimes I feel that we punish the majority that want to travel, and (cater to) the ones who do not.”