The Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable renewed its call Monday for the federal government to reopen the U.S.-Canada border and put in place a vaccination certification program to allow entry to international travelers as part of a clearly-defined post-pandemic re-opening plan.
In a press release issued, the group, which is a national coalition of leaders in the tourism and travel sector, called for “a comprehensive, national plan to reopen our economy” post-pandemic calling for “critical measures that will enable the recovery of the travel and tourism sector and the Canadian economy.”
The roundtable noted that G7 leaders who met this weekend issued a communiqué that recognized “the importance to the global economy of safely restarting international travel, by land, air and sea, and multilateral efforts to achieve this.” It also stressed the need for “a set of common standards for travel including interoperability and mutual recognition of digital applications, testing requirements, recognition of vaccination status including exemptions and comparable criteria for when responsive measures may be required.”
The Roundtable said that while international discussions are important, Canada needs a plan of its own
The World Travel & Tourism Council was disappointed that no agreement for immediate action was taken at the G7 Summit to restart international travel other than promises to establish a taskforce on discussing travel between the UK and US.
Acting WTTC chief executive Virginia Messina said world leaders “have missed a vital opportunity to enable their citizens to travel more freely and agree an immediate further opening of overseas travel.
“Every day, travel and tourism businesses are losing tens of millions pounds due to governments delaying a safe restart.
“We need to see action immediately to help the sector get back on its feet, a sector which can’t wait any longer if it’s to avoid hundreds of thousands of job losses, in addition to the millions already lost worldwide.”
News that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson might delay the lifting of all COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England another four weeks beyond the original June 21 target probably won’t inspire much optimism that transatlantic travel will resume very soon.
