WTTC has made an urgent call to the heads of state of the G7 countries, plus Australia, South Korea and Spain, for strong leadership and international collaboration to save the travel and tourism sector.
In an unprecedented move, 120 of the world’s major travel and global business leaders have signed a letter backing the call by WTTC.
Signatories include representatives from PATA; major airlines such as British Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Jet2, WestJet and Virgin Atlantic; top international hotel groups, such as Accor, Best Western, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Mandarin Oriental, Marriott, Meliá Hotels and Radisson; and major tour operators and travel companies, such as Abercrombie & Kent, American Express, Carlson Wagonlit, Expedia, Travelport, TUI and Uber.
WTTC said that despite travel and tourism’s crucial importance to the local and global economies, “there is no clear or internationally coordinated effort to protect this uniquely exposed sector”.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO, said: “We have reached a stage where critical action is urgently needed. Any measures taken in silos moving forward will only worsen the plight of millions of ordinary people. We need to transcend politics and put the millions of livelihoods, which have been affected by Covid-19, front and centre.
“This is not a binary solution or a choice between health on the one hand, and jobs, the economy and travel on the other. We can make strong progress on all these fronts if we follow the expert advice from science and learn from the past and positive experiences of others.
“WTTC and the other signatories of the letter, sent to the leaders of the world, are committed to working together to help resolve the worst crisis of our generation, and bring back the millions of jobs impacted. However, the private sector cannot do this alone. It is vital that the leaders of these countries come together and prioritise rescuing the world from this unprecedented crisis, by acting in an effective and coordinated way to bring back more than 120 million jobs and livelihoods affected.”
In the letter, WTTC identified four measures which need concerted international framework and leadership to combat the coronavirus:
- Wearing a mask: This should be mandatory on all modes of transport throughout the entire traveller journey, as well as when visiting any interior venue and in locations where there is restricted movement which results in close personal contact and required physical distancing cannot be maintained. According to medical evidence, such measures can reduce the risk of the spread by up to 92 per cent.
- Testing and contact tracing: We need governments to invest and agree on extensive, rapid, and reliable testing, ideally with results available in as quick as 90 minutes, and at a low cost, before departure and/or after arrival (symptomatic and asymptomatic would-be travellers), supported by effective and agreed contact tracing tools. The application of one or multiple tests, with the second after five days, will help to isolate infected people.
- Quarantine for positive tests only: Quarantine for healthy travellers, which only serves to damage the economy, should not be necessary if testing is in place before departure and/or on arrival, and effective containment measures are taken five days later. This can replace blanket quarantine in a more targeted and effective way, significantly reducing the negative impact on jobs and the economy.
- Reinforcing global protocols and standardise measures: The adoption of global health and safety protocols will help rebuild traveller confidence and ensure a consistent, coordinated and aligned approach of the travel experience in addition to significantly reducing the risk of infection. We also support the Public Health Corridor Concept which promotes a clean and safe end-to-end journey.
WTTC stressed that its research has shown that even a modest resumption of travelling can have massive economic benefits and bring thousands of desperately needed jobs back; providing a critical boost for the travel and tourism sector and generating GDP for economies left floundering after being struck by the pandemic.
The Indonesian government is still considering whether to give Bali the green light to reopen to international visitors in September.
The travel ban on foreigners that the central government has set since April to curb the spread of coronavirus is likely not to be revoked by then, although the Bali administration has made known that the island is ready to receive international tourists from September 11.
Reopening the country to international tourists is a “very positive” move, but the government is seeking the right timing to do that, said state-owned enterprises minister Erick Thohir, who is also chairman of the national economic and Covid-19 recovery committee, during a web press conference on August 15.
He said that although Indonesia really needs foreign tourists, the government doesn’t want new Covid-19 clusters to emerge again.
According to a recent meeting among related ministers, including foreign affairs minister Retno Marsudi and coordinating minister of maritime affairs and investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, safety remained the highest priority. Although the country was striving to get its economy back on track, the government did not want to go back to square one after its painstaking efforts to stem the Covid-19 spread, shared Erick.
“The reopening of destinations to foreign tourists is still under review. The vaccine may be available early next year,” Erick said.
Meanwhile, the country’s plan to establish travel bubbles hasn’t been burst. But the government is now exploring the possibility to include only Bali – or the island along with tourist destinations in other provinces – for the travel bubble scheme aimed at reviving its tourism industry.
The decision not to open the country as a whole is still under review, according to Hari Sungkari, deputy of infrastructure and destination development at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.
“It could be that the travel bubble will not involve a foreign country and the whole of Indonesia. It could be country A with Bali only, or country A with Bali and another region,” he said in a web press conference. “Or the bubble could be even smaller, that is, a point-to-point (travel bubble), in which (a destination) in a foreign country is (paired) with a destination in Indonesia.”
With talks for the project still underway, Hari expects that Indonesia will reach travel bubble agreements with partner countries only by year-end.
As travel bubbles will also require travellers to adhere to health and safety protocols, Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation will give them a fast track to enter its property, The Nusa Dua in Bali, said its director of business and development, Edwin Darmasetiawan.
Besides Bali, other tourist destinations that the government will propose for the travel bubble scheme were not disclosed by Hari. Ng Sebastian, owner of Incito Vacations, expressed hopes that the government would choose smaller islands, such as Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, Belitung in Bangka Belitung Islands, and Bintan in Riau Islands.
The Covid-19 crisis has made the government’s target of attracting 18 million foreign tourists this year an impossible goal, said Hari. According to the government’s forecast, the number of foreign tourists in Indonesia will drop to around 2.8 to four million this year, from 16.1 million visitors in 2019.
Hari projects that the country would only realise its 18 million foreign tourist arrival target in 2024 or 2025, and that domestic tourism would recover to pre-pandemic levels only in 2023.