The warning from the global tourism body came following concerns that tourists are being turned away at the borders because countries don’t have a common list of internationally recognised and approved Covid-19 vaccines.
“Reciprocal recognition of all vaccine types and batches is essential if we are to avoid any further unnecessary and damaging delay to restarting international travel,” she said in a statement.Reports of holidaymakers facing obstacles to enter a foreign country have been on the rise over the past few weeks. Some were even prevented from boarding their flights to their holiday destinations.
According to WTTC, reports of travellers being turned away because they have the “wrong” vaccine batches or “unrecognised” vaccines have sparked concern from consumers. These incidents would deter travellers from booking holidays and thereby damaging the already struggling travel and tourism sector, the tourism body said.
“We can avoid this by having a fully recognised list of all the approved vaccines – and vaccine batches – which should be the key to unlocking international travel, not the door to preventing it,” said Messina.