Jim Byers’ Blog: Vaccine Passports A Necessary Evil For Tourism Recovery

February 16, 2021 ctn_admin

“I’m sorry, ma’am. You don’t have a stamp to show you’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. I’m afraid you can’t enter the country.”

“Oh, wait, sir. I see you don’t have a COVID-19 vaccination stamp. I’m afraid you can’t board the plane with your family.”

Destinations and airlines are increasingly looking at some kind of vaccination proof as a requirement for safe travel.

Qantas has said it will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all international travellers.Greece and Israel recently signed a deal that will allow people vaccinated against the virus to move freely between the two countries once travel resumes. Politico.com reports that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pushed the EU to adopt a common vaccination passport.

Israel has created an internal passport of sorts that shows which citizens have had double vaccinations. Only those people with the official stamp will be allowed into hotels, gyms, shops and other places. Some say the next step is to negotiate reciprocal arrangements with other countries to allow entry to those with vaccinations.

A vaccination pass might be critical to restarting the tourism industry, said Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

“One key element vital for the restart of tourism is consistency and harmonization of rules and protocols regarding international travel,” he said recently. “Evidence of vaccination, for example, through the coordinated introduction of what may be called ‘health passports,’ can offer this. They can also eliminate the need for quarantine on arrival, a policy which is also standing in the way of the return of international tourism.”

It may sound radical to some, but don’t forget that proof of yellow fever vaccinations are required by some 20 countries around the world today.

I thought vaccine passports or mandatory presentation of proof of vaccination were bad ideas when I first thought about them. It sounded to me like the world was setting up a two-tier system, where only people from rich, developed countries would be able to travel, leaving people in countries that are slow to vaccinate (wait a minute, that’s us here in Canada)  in the “stay at home and suffer category.”

But I’ve come round to think it’s probably a good idea. Perhaps even essential.

Greg Klassen, former head of Destination Canada and now a partner at Twenty31 Consulting in Vancouver, says he hopes the passports become a regular part of the tourism landscape.

“The idea of travel is so insecure for most individuals, and very, very insecure for people welcoming visitors,” he told Canadian Travel News. “I don’t think we have any support or evidence or any confidence that will help improve that state, and the only tool I can think of that might transcend all of that is this kind of vaccination passport, or some kind of digital mark that says, ‘I’m not going to give you COVID, and I’m not going to get COVID because I’m a safe traveller.’”

Klassen said some feel such a rule would create discrimination among travellers or cause privacy problems. But he thinks those issues are already present in tourism.

“Some people need visas, so visas are discriminatory. Passports are somewhat discriminatory. Travel itself is price discriminatory.”

I think Klassen’s right. Travel has ALWAYS been the privilege of a few. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true.

A lot of folks I know think nothing of flying off to South America, the coming home for a day or two before a flight to Bangkok or Budapest. For many people in the world, a trip of 100 miles is still a luxury. That inequality exists now. A vaccine passport might exacerbate those differences in society, but it’s not creating them.

Cara Zwibel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Fundamental Freedoms project, says vaccination certificates could discriminate against pregnant mothers and children, who are still discouraged from getting COVID-19 vaccines in some places, or against certain religious groups or other conscientious objectors.

“There are real equality concerns if we’re going to start doling out benefits and demerits based on who is vaccinated,” she said.

Zwibel has a point. But I think the economics of the matter outweigh her concerns.

The World Travel and Tourism Council notes that one of 11 jobs around the world are tourism and travel jobs. In some parts of the world, notably the Caribbean, tourism and travel are about the only things that keep a country alive. Yes, having vaccine passports could make it easier for annoying Instagrammers to post selfies in front of the Spanish Steps in Rome. But it would also help employ the city’s restaurant workers, hotel cleaners and tour guides.

I bet if you asked a waiter at a café in Melbourne or a cab driver in Montego Bay if they want more tourists visiting, they’d jump on the idea like Sidney Crosby on a loose puck. Do you think they care if the system discriminates in favour of richer tourists and keeps poor people from flying around the world? I doubt it.

Pascal Prinz, the chair of the European Travel Commission’s Canada Chapter, said his group isn’t advocating for vaccine passports, but that they do want to make travel “as easy and seamless as possible.”

Tourism-hungry countries such as Greece and Italy are said to favour a vaccine passport program. But, Europe being Europe, it’s hard to reach a consensus.

Another concern flagged by opponents of a vaccine passport is privacy. Again, Klassen doesn’t buy it.

“Even the privacy issue doesn’t hold water, because every time you enter a country your name and all of that information is everywhere. But I think both of those things will give governments pause.”

I think he’s right here, too. The government pretty much knows everything we do now, anyway. Facebook knows if we’ve been shopping for lumber or pantyhose. I get the argument, but to me privacy went down the toilet the day Bill Gates announced the invention of Windows.

I don’t love the idea of a vaccine passport. But I think it’s a necessity to help restore the crucial tourism and travel industry in countries around the world.

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