(TAN): Restoration of “air corridors” between the world’s top financial centres are vital to reviving international business travel and help kickstart the global economic recovery, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has said. The WTTC, which represents the global travel & tourism private sector, says it is crucial that international business travel resumes, following its near collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic.
WTTC is calling for the introduction of a pilot scheme, involving airport-based testing, followed by a second test just days later, for travel between the financial hubs of London and New York, with the aim of re-starting business travel. An analysis of Public Health England’s data by WTTC suggests two tests in quick succession could be 80% effective in identifying passengers with Covid-19, and thus reduce the quarantine period from 14 to 4-6 days or no quarantine at all.
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Therefore, the pilot scheme with its twin test regime, will help reassure corporates that it is safe for their employees to travel and remove the need for unhelpful quarantines.
Each year, inbound international business travel accounts for more than USD 272 billion. Many international airlines rely heavily upon this (inbound) international business travel, especially on highly competitive routes across the Atlantic, for their profits.
Thus, resuming such travel across the Atlantic, could benefit the entire travel & tourism sector; from airlines and hotels to travel management companies and ground transport providers, reviving tens of thousands of jobs and a multitude of companies which depend upon business travel for their survival, WTTC said.
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However, WTTC warns this will only happen if the government takes a targeted approach, ditching blunt country-wide quarantines which have a devastating economic impact. Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO, said: “While the recent ‘island policy’ introduced by the UK government marks a step in the right direction with a more targeted approach, WTTC believes a laser-like focus is necessary to reopen key international business routes, which could provide a significant economic boost.”
Guevara is of the opinion that flights must be restored along ‘city corridors’ linking cities with similar low COVID-19 case numbers, such as between London and New York, Washington, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Shanghai. She said, “International business travel is the lifeblood of the global economy contributing more than USD 272 billion a year. Therefore, the government should abandon quarantines which don’t work, and focus on more targeted measures like ‘city corridors’.”
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Travel restrictions, such as quarantines introduced by the government, has seen international travel and visitor numbers to the UK collapse. International visitor spending was predicted to plunge by 78% compared to 2019 levels, putting 3 million UK travel & tourism jobs at direct risk of being lost in a “worst case” scenario mapped out by WTTC economic modelling.
