Vax passport is essential

MORE than 80% of travel experts believe vaccine passports will be an essential tool in enabling the sector to rebound effectively after the pandemic, new data from Finder suggests.

The survey’s results were in line with similar findings delivered by Flight Centre polling last month (TD 23 Aug), which found four in five people were in favour of vaccine passports if it meant a quicker return to business travel.

The Finder survey also found that 84% of travel experts canvassed agreed that opening Australia’s international borders to fully vaccinated tourists in 2022 without having to undergo hotel quarantine was a good idea.

Commenting on the results, Chairman of foreign exchange provider CLSA Premium, Peter Boehm, said the travel and tourism sector should go ahead under a vaccinated model that balances both health and economic concerns.

“If tourists are fully vaccinated, and we open up the economy once we reach the planned vaccination rates, then the risk of death is materially reduced and life should, and must, go on as normal as possible,” he said.

However, the same study also found that only 11% of experts predicted interstate borders would open up to travellers before the end of the year, with the majority tipping that it would happen during Q1 next year, while a third of respondents lamenting interstate travel might even be later, during Q2 2022.

MEANWHILE the Australian Aviation Ground Handling Industry Alliance has warned that Australian domestic flights could be cancelled between Nov and Feb if third-party airport staff are excluded from support packages, claiming exiting workers will create major staff shortages.