Mandatory Covid-19 vaccines for travel may ‘kill the sector’

Bloomberg

The rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 has intensified debate about whether they should be made mandatory, with the head of a major tourism lobby saying that doing so would cause irreparable harm to the struggling sector.
“I don’t think governments will require vaccination next year” for travel, Gloria Guevara, head of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said at a press conference. “If they do that they will kill their sector.”
Those first in line to get the jabs include the elderly and vulnerable, who “are the last people who will travel,” she said. Instead, rules for virus testing before departure are likely to be bolstered.
Alan Joyce, the chief executive officer of Qantas Airways Ltd, ignited an industrywide debate last month when he said proof of vaccination would be a condition for travellers entering or leaving Australia on the carrier’s planes.
So far, no country has made inoculation compulsory or said it would be required for people crossing borders.
Airlines are among the hardest hit by the health crisis, with global airline lobby IATA forecasting combined losses of $157 billion this year and next. When the broader tourism sector is added to the tally, the impact rises to $3.8 trillion, Guevara said. She was speaking at an event organised by the CommonTrust Network, a Swiss non-profit backed by the World Economic Forum that is rolling out a digital health system called CommonPass designed to certify test results to minimise the risk of fraud.
Tourism-dependent Aruba will start using the system in February to screen visitors, Dangui Oduber, minister for health, tourism and sport, said at the event.