The global travel industry will only return to a ‘new normal’ when the whole world is ready to travel under a unified system and countries are willing to collaborate on this.

“In tourism there is no competition between neighbours,” said Dr Taleb Rifai, former Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and current Secretary General of the World Tourism Forum Institute.
 
He was the keynote speaker at the recent eThekwini Municipality (City of Durban) tourism Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E) webinar hosted by Tourism Investment Africa 360 (TIA360).
 
“Countries will have to work together if tourism is to recover – one country cannot insist on quarantine while its neighbour demands a vaccination passport and a third simply requires 72 hours testing before arrival or at entry points,” said Rifai.

“We do not want to turn this into a political game of those who have and those that have not – we will all lose if we do so. No one would travel to a non-vaccinated destination, and no vaccinated destination would accept receiving anyone from a non-vaccinated destination. Travel is about connecting everybody everywhere, so it will not work, until everyone is vaccinated, and this could take years.”
 
Rifai said what was needed was a new multilateral system, a more harmonised, fair and equitable system. “It is not important how successful every country is on its own, if one cannot travel from one place to another. Affordable testing may be more logical for a faster and more immediate recovery. The trick is not to do a perfect job on your own; it is to agree on minimum procedures.”
 
He reiterated that there would be no real tourism recovery until people had peace of mind and trust and confidence in one international system. “They are not going to travel simply because their governments say ‘you can now travel’.”
 
Rifai highlighted three key steps for industry and government to implement toward tourism recovery:

• Keep businesses alive, which requires direct support from governments or soft loans, just to ensure businesses have enough time to adjust to the new reality and survive.
• Concentrate on domestic and regional travel, which requires the private sector to adjust quickly to the new realities of such travellers and offer new deals. Only then can governments stop the direct support.
• Focus on new niche markets, such as young digital nomads, by introducing, amongst others, special travel insurance policies for foreigners. This can be achieved with governments working together.

TIA360 has partnered with Invest Durban, Durban Tourism and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry to implement a tourism BR&E programme and roll-out. This was kick-started by last week’s virtual seminar.