Popular holiday destinations Sri Lanka and Grenada, are among the latest destinations to begin using the world’s first ever global safety and hygiene stamp, launched recently by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
The growing list of endorsements have come from many major holiday and city destinations around the world, with the holiday destinations of Sri Lanka and Grenada joining other summer sun destinations such as the ever-popular Alicante and Benidorm in Spain. Eswatini, the popular wildlife and safari destination in Southern Africa, joins a growing list of African nations to adopt ‘Safe Travels’, including Rwanda and Tanzania.
WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, created the Safe Travels stamp to allow travellers to identify destinations and businesses around the world which have adopted the global standardised health and hygiene protocols. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has welcomed the WTTC Safe Travels stamp, which place the safety and hygiene of travellers as top priority.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said: “Our Safe Travels stamp continues to be a great success and we are thrilled to see even more popular countries and destinations adopt our global health and hygiene protocols.
“The WTTC Safe Travels stamp has had astounding success since its launch. This shows the importance of the initiative not only to countries and destinations, but also, crucially, to travellers and the 330 million people around the world whose livelihoods depend on the Travel & Tourism sector.
“The stamp represents a critical step in rebuilding consumer confidence in Travel & Tourism and allowing travellers to rest easy knowing that enhanced standards of hygiene are in place and they can once again experience ‘Safe Travels’.”
Since the launch of the WTTC Safe Travels stamp, destination countries and cities, around the world have now adopted WTTC’s new protocols, including holiday heavyweights such as Portugal, Dubai, Egypt and Turkey.
As part of its Safe Travels protocols, these worldwide measures provide consistency and guidance to travel providers and travellers about the new approach to health, hygiene, deep cleansing and physical distancing, in the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19 world.
The protocols were devised following the experience of WTTC members dealing with COVID19 and based on guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to WTTC’s 2020 Economic Impact Report, during 2019, Travel & Tourism was responsible for one in 10 jobs (330 million total), making a 10.3% contribution to global GDP and generating one in four of all new jobs.
WTTC has created nine overarching principles & objectives for the Travel & Tourism Sector in the post-lockdown and recovery stage:
- Have the sector lead the definition of industry regulation as Travel & Tourism moves from crisis management to recovery
- Put the safety, health and security of travellers and the Travel & Tourism workforce at the core of the development of global standards
- Ensure coherence in the approach and development of new global standards through a coordinated, collaborative, and transparent approach within the Travel & Tourism sector
- Share harmonised and consistent standards and guidelines across destinations and countries.
- Collaborate with key actors across the Travel & Tourism supply and value chain to ensure readiness to restart operations
- Ensure standards and guidelines implemented are aligned with governmental and public health requirements and supported by medical evidence.
- Rebuild trust and confidence with travellers through effective communication & marketing; letting them know the protocols and guidelines implemented and assurances available to keep them safe.
- Relax and lift travel restrictions once the public health threat has been contained.
- Advocate for the implementation of enabling policies from financial relief to visa facilitation and incentives to destination promotion to support the recovery and demand re-generation for the sector.