Global Tourism Group Wants Mandatory Vaccine Passports for Travellers

Global Tourism Group Wants Mandatory Vaccine Passports for Travellers

January 25, 2021 ctn_admin

A major global tourism group is calling for vaccine passports as a way to kick start tourism around the world.

The Global Tourism Crisis Committee met in Madrid to discuss measures that would help ensure the safe resumption of international travel.

Organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the cross-sector body met during the 113th session of the UNWTO Executive Council to advance solid plans to restart tourism. According to the UNWTO website, the meeting focused on “the integration of vaccines into a harmonized approach to safe travel and launching a coordinated effort to boost confidence in the sector.”

“With countries around the world now rolling out vaccines against the COVID-19 virus, the Committee noted that this opens a critical window in the fight against the pandemic and to promote the safe resumption of international travel. Members highlighted the importance of stepping up coordination, within the framework of the International Health Regulations, of vaccination certificates to ensure the implementation of common, harmonized digital related travel principles, protocols and documents.

“This would be in line with the work being carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has reported at potential applications of digital technology to enable safe international travel and facilitate arrivals and departures.”

“The rollout of vaccines is a step in the right direction, but the restart of tourism cannot wait.,” said UNWTO secretary-general Zurab Pololikashvili. “Vaccines must be part of a wider, coordinated approach that includes certificates and passes for safe cross-border travel.”

Dr Richard Dawood, a specialist in travel medicine at the Fleet Street Clinic in London, told The Guardian website in the UK that proof of vaccination in order to travel is inevitable. “It won’t really be our choice – [vaccine passports] will de facto be a requirement by individual countries to prove immunity.”

The head of the World Travel and Tourism Council, Gloria Guevara, said earlier this month that requiring a vaccine would be like workplace discrimination.

“We should never require the vaccination to get a job or to travel,” she said.

Given that some countries may not get mass vaccines for a couple years, others worry that a vaccine passport would create a two-tier travel society in which only travellers from wealthy countries with top medical care will be able to leave home.