Let’s find a common ground
Many travel leaders are urging countries to have standardised protocols in place that will support smooth movement of people – whether it is hotels, immigration or airlines.
We don’t want to put up patchworks of different standards and requirements. One country has certain standards on health checks than another country. Health authorities in different countries will have different risk perceptions. Some may be higher, with lower risk tolerance; others may have less stringent checks. How do we reconcile with that? We are trying to do this at a bilateral level with countries we feel we can move together.
We work with UNWTO and WTTC to make sure we get the best global thinking in terms of collaborating because the fastest way to come out of this pandemic is for us to unify our measures. But, when we take our WTTC ‘safety stamp’ to other countries, governments are challenged by the level of trust and co-operation they are getting from institutions and individuals. The more we can unify practices between countries, the more we can give clear guidance.
International coordination will be vital to rehabilitating travel in the post-COVID-19 world. Lack of global management is slowing a return for the aviation sector. The uncoordinated nature of managing the crisis, a failure to manage it on a global scale in a unified way, is clearly an issue which makes things worse and more costly. It is difficult to cut through the jungle – it is a mess. The whole process has become incredibly political.
Travellers want to book and live data from Google and Amadeus shows this. But we need governments to rigorously enforce safety measures to rebuild confidence. This is a great opportunity for countries to get back into the market. Destinations must have a plan, a recovery strategy and must start negotiations with online travel agencies. We need to take action today to get people arriving in three months.