WTTC issues guidelines for safe travels

Testing, contact tracing and health certificates may become the new norm

WTTC has laid out its new guidelines to ensure safe and seamless travel, including rapid testing and tracing, opening travel corridors, and implementing a risk assessment framework.

The guidelines will ensure that the travel sector is provided with an extensive framework to help governments and private business work in collaboration to create aligned testing and contact tracing programmes.

Testing, contact tracing and health certificates may become the new norm

The initiative is part of WTTC’s Safe and Seamless Traveller Journey, which aims to enable safe travels to rebuild global consumer confidence.

The council has outlined five critical calls to action for global governments to aid the sector’s recovery amid Covid-19. They are:

  1. Support quick and reliable tests as a critical path to ensure public health and a rapid testing and contact tracing strategy to help contain the spread of the virus
  2. Multilateral collaboration and adherence to internationally recognised guidelines to enable “approved travellers” to travel across to multiple destinations using a single process and risk assessment framework
  3. Support “travel bubbles” or “tourism corridors” between low-risk Covid-19 areas/zones or countries based on recognised criteria on what constitutes low-, medium- and high-risk, so as to limit testing requirements for travellers and support the industry’s recovery
  4. Remove blanket travel advisories and recommendations against non-essential international travel as this prevents insurance protection for travellers, as countries reopen
  5. Support a global standard of traveller health insurance, or at least minimum requirements, defined with private sector insurance companies

WTTC said that the new guidelines were produced after extensive consultation with various stakeholders, including its members, health experts and government officials, and according to WHO and CDC guidance, and ICAO CART Take off guidance.

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