While travel and tourism industry is frowning upon latest travel bans across the globe in wake of new coronavirus strain, governments across Europe are trying to navigate between avoiding the spread of the novel coronavirus over the Christmas holiday season and allowing people to celebrate with family and friends.
The European Commission recommended on Tuesday that travel bans imposed by EU countries on Britain to contain a new variant of the coronavirus should end to allow freight and essential travel to resume and let people return home.
The recommendation, to be put to EU ambassadors later on Tuesday, advised that non-essential travel to and from Britain should be discouraged. However, people heading to their country of residence should be allowed to do so, provided they undergo a COVID-19 test or quarantine for 10 days, the Commission said.
Representing the industry, WTTC President & CEO Gloria Guevara said that “While protecting public health is paramount, blanket travel bans cannot be the answer. They have not worked in the past and they will not work now.
“If a comprehensive and quick turnaround testing regime were in place at airports across the country to test all travellers before they depart, it would ensure only those infected with COVID-19 are isolated and are prevented from travelling. There would be no need for countries to introduce damaging and counterproductive wholesale bans on UK travellers.
“People should not be deterred from travelling because they simply can’t find or arrange to get tested at a local testing centre or lab. We need to make it much easier for travellers to get a test prior to their journey.
“Travellers pose no higher risk than other members of the community if they follow all the internationally recognised health safety protocols, including the mandatory wearing of masks and regular testing.
“While we understand the concern and need to curb the spread of COVID-19, the growing number of blunt travel bans are incredibly disruptive and economically damaging. We should not underestimate the terrible social impact of increasing isolation and its effect on mental health.
“Every sector of the economy, not just Travel & Tourism, will suffer – as will those countries imposing the ban as their own economies feel the impact of border closures and the loss of business.
“The Travel & Tourism sector will be critical to powering the economic recovery, which is why it is absolutely crucial that action must be taken now to save it. If not, it will collapse, and millions of people will lose their jobs.”
Same sentiment was reiterated by International Air Transport Association (IATA) as well. Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President, Europe said in a statement that, “this latest situation once again reinforces the urgent need for coordinated recognition of systematic testing of travelers. Governments must cooperate to put mutually recognized testing capacity in place so that borders can remain open to the vast majority of healthy passengers.
“COVID-19 is likely to be with us for some time, so rather than travel bans, governments must adopt more flexible and practical policies to manage the risks in a way that enables people to safely work and travel. ‘Test, test and test again’ has been the mantra of the WHO for almost a year now, and we implore governments to act on this advice.”
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