The GBTA has voiced its support for the continuation of European Union Digital Covid Certificate (EUDCC) to allow free movement in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The European Tourism Manifesto Alliance, which is made up of 70 public and private travel and tourism organisations, wants the certificate to stay until the transmission levels of Covid don’t result in severe impact to public health.
Earlier this month the EU Parliament gave the green light to Member States to keep the certificate in place until June 2023 but the move has yet to be officially approved.
In addition to the use of the EUDCC, The European Tourism Manifesto Alliance and GBTA support the premises that:
- Travel restrictions have proven to be ineffective in stopping the spread of the virus, at best only postponing a new infection wave by a few days. This has been backed up by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
- The verification of EUDCC should not be used as a reason to impose additional restrictions to the freedom of movement such as the temporary reintroduction of controls at internal borders.
- The scope of the vaccines that may be used as the basis for the issuance of an EUDCC should be widened so that all vaccines that have completed the WHO emergency use listing procedure should be included. People who received a vaccine currently not on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or WHO list should still have a fully accepted EUDCC if they have received a booster vaccination with a vaccine authorised by WHO or EMA.
- Should Member States resume the use of the EUDCC for travel, or for access to bars, restaurants, hotels, museums, concert halls, trade fair centres and other venues, national rules must mirror border and travel requirements.
“GBTA continues to call for a consistent plan across Europe, to avoid a fragmented approach across the 27 member countries,” said Catherine Logan, Regional Vice President, Europe, GBTA.
“As business travel returns, it is vital that a common approach is used across members, based on data driven decisions so that the industry can fully recover to pre-pandemic revenues of $392 billion in Europe and $1.43 trillion globally.”
