Covid-19 Impact on tourism economy Covid-19: WTTC Tells the UK to End its ‘Discredited’ Travel Traffic Light System by GTP editing team 1 September 2021 written by GTP editing team 1 September 2021 2 comments Share 0FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 18 Photo source: WTTC The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon the UK government to finally bring an end to the “widely discredited” travel traffic light system. WTTC represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector. The call comes after the UK’s latest travel update which saw just seven countries moved to the Covid-19 green list, with Thailand, Montenegro and Turkey added to the red list. “The traffic light system is widely discredited. It puts the UK at a disadvantage and is squandering the vaccine dividend,” WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson said. WTTC says both consumers and Travel & Tourism businesses have lost confidence in the system, which “condemns the endless chopping and changing of countries that causes confusion”. The global tourism body says the UK’s travel traffic light system only benefits an unregulated market of costly test suppliers. “This is the 51st change in a baffling array of travel bans,” Simpson said, adding that holidaymakers are confused and frustrated. Photo source: WTTC According to Simpson, the UK government is seriously damaging the Travel & Tourism sector which in turn supports thousands of businesses and jobs. WTTC says the time has come to “ditch these disruptive updates completely” and allow all those fully vaccinated to travel freely once more – unless travelling to a red-list country. “Nowhere should be off limits to anyone in the UK who is fully vaccinated, except in exceptional circumstances,” WTTC’s president said. WTTC supports that: – travel should be allowed with testing – for the unvaccinated – to ensure those who are unable to get vaccinated are not discriminated against, and – PCRs should be replaced with the more affordable antigen tests or covered by the UK government. Photo source: WTTC According to WTTC, costly testing is putting travel out of the reach of families and returning it to the preserve of the wealthy. “The UK government appears to have no exit plan. The Global Travel Taskforce, set up to oversee these haphazard travel restrictions must set out a clear strategy to recover normal travel,” Simpson added. According to WTTC, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has so far cost more than 307,000 jobs in the UK alone, with many thousands more still at risk. Join the 15,000+ travel executives who read our newsletter Follow GTP Headlines on Google News to keep up to date with all the latest on tourism and travel in Greece. Share 0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail GTP editing team This is the team byline for GTP. The copyrights for these articles are owned by GTP. They may not be redistributed without the permission of the owner. previous post Confusion Over Covid-19 Vaccine Certificates Could Hamper Travel Recovery, says GlobalData next post South Aegean Hotel Occupancy Reaches Up to 85% in August You may also like Greece’s Hotel Market Sees Major Investments Over Four Months 5 February 2025 Greek Tourism Ministry Monitors Santorini Situation as Seismic Activity Continues 5 February 2025 Global Air Passenger Demand Reaches Record High in 2024, IATA Reports 5 February 2025 Greek PM Reassures Public About Santorini’s Ongoing Seismic Activity 5 February 2025 Milos: Ministry Suspends 5-star Hotel Construction Near Sarakiniko Beach 5 February 2025 ELIME and HELMEPA Join Forces for Safer, More Sustainable Greek Ports 5 February 2025 2 comments R Ferguson 2 September 2021 - 11:34 So they only want fully vaccinated people who can still catch the virus and spread it as i found out. Discrimination against those who have had the virus, and recovered with antibodies and therefore immunity safer than any vaccinated person. Should be getting back to full travel, a lateral flow test on arrival should be enough. We are in Greece now cost us nearly £500 for test kits, we are not vaccinated no need for it as we have recovered from the virus and have tested positive for antibodies, yet when we get home we have to self isolate for 10 days while vaccinated people do not, nothing to do with health but blackmail to get more people to get vaccinated. Reply Carl+Simpson 2 September 2021 - 11:16 The Tory government is getting 20% of every pcr test done and in most cases they have shared in the companies who run them so they in no rush to end pcr tests. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel Reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ
