Travel and tourism industry requires unified global travel protocols for recovery

Systematic pre-departure Covid-19 testing instead of demand-denting quarantine policy is 'crucial' for the industry's recovery, executives say

Empty passenger waiting seats at Heathrow Terminal 5 Airport in London. Mandatory quarantine policy on arrival at some destinations has dented recovery prospects of the travel and tourism industry. Getty ImagesShow less

Governments must agree to unified international travel protocols, such as systematic Covid-19 testing of passengers before flight departures and shun imposing mandatory quarantines upon arrival that are crushing demand, tourism and travel executives said.

Common standards will help revive the travel and tourism industry that has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, executives at the Tourism Tomorrow webinar said on Wednesday.

"Quarantines don't help, people won't travel because the rules change every week... don't bet on a vaccine, we need to create a new normal with a testing regime," Peter Brun, chief communications officer at visa services firm VFS Global, said during the panel discussion.

"What's important is that governments work together to establish one key regime. To have common procedures and standards is the way forward to survive the winter."

Global airlines are facing a grim winter as a resurgence of Covid-19 infections and travel restrictions decimate demand.

Setting harmonised travel protocols goes beyond coordination between the government and private sector, and should be agreed upon between governments around the world to ease the impact on economies and the industry, Elie Tabchouri, Google's head of Public Sector and Telco units, said.

International Covid-19 test protocols for departing international passengers at airports, which could ease the slump in air travel, are expected to be ready within four weeks, Gloria Manzo Guevara, chief of the World Travel & Tourism Council, said on Monday.

Once travel restrictions ease and vaccines are introduced, passenger confidence will increase and travel could rebound by the second quarter of 2021, Mr Brun said. However, the industry will not return to its pre-crisis levels until 2023.

Demand for leisure travel will recover sooner than business trips as companies increasingly rely on technology for remote meeting, Jaki Ellenby, director of Marketing and Events at Global Village, said.

The Covid-19 crisis will force the tourism industry to embrace digitalisation faster as it copes with new norms and changing needs of travellers, Mr Tabchouri said.

"Covid has injected a sense of urgency and need," he said. "Covid made it a necessity, even a responsibility, to digitalise."