UNWTO considers that requesting the anti-COVID PCR test again for travel is a step backwards

The Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, believes that requesting PCR tests again to enter countries once the vaccination processes against COVID-19 are well advanced is a step backwards and points out that the situation will improve in the boreal spring all over the world, especially in Europe.

The head of world tourism expressed his concern with what is happening after the appearance of the omicron, the new variant of the coronavirus, especially in the face of Christmas, a date on which the movement of tourists is very important.

Although it avoided entering the actions of each country – “each one has its conditions” – it considered that requiring PCR to enter (cases of Italy or the United Kingdom, among others) with advanced vaccination processes “is a step backwards” and he predicted an improvement in the situation towards the spring, especially in Europe.

Harmonize protocols

To contribute to the normalization and full restart of tourism, UNWTO continues to strive to harmonize protocols in different countries, promote investment in the sector and work towards more sustainable projects.

It is key to work in this direction to recover employment in tourism, because “millions” of families living from tourism throughout the world are still in danger, said Pololikashvili.

The secretary general hopes that by 2022 normality will return, although it will depend on the evolution of the virus and vaccination and when markets as important for tourism as China, the United States, Korea, Japan, Russia, Brazil are fully incorporated into the circuits. or Mexico.

Once it returns to normal, tourism has the capacity and strength to restart quickly, because “everyone wants to travel”, although the recovery of the pre-pandemic levels will not occur for another two or three years.

Although he did not advance figures on how the year will end – the Organization had calculated a decrease of 70% -75% over the levels of 2019 – he affirmed that the summer in the northern hemisphere was better than in 2020.

He also rejected criticism of the organization’s role in the crisis caused by the coronavirus.

In fact, he added, UNWTO was the first organization to create a crisis committee when the pandemic was announced in March, in which all countries, partners and international organizations related to tourism participated, and from which they emerged. recommendations and guides for the sector.

In these almost two years, the United Nations organization has developed three guides and recommendations, first on the opportunity to extend the use of PCR tests, then on vaccination and then on the COVID passport – later recommended by the European Union -, stressed the secretary general.

Pololikashvili explained that the recent UNWTO General Assembly held in Madrid in early December established a work plan that focuses on innovation, digitization, sustainability and education, as well as support for rural tourism.

He highlighted the work in favor of education, an area in which the UNWTO has trained 15,000 students in the last two years in an online academy in which it works with the Spanish Business Institute.

Investment support is another of the work guides and in this matter they are working on a pilot program with 15 countries to create investment guides to help develop new destinations.

The Assembly also agreed to open three new regional offices, in Morocco, Brazil and Argentina, in addition to the one inaugurated in June in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), to reinforce the presence in the different regions of the world.

The return of great countries to the UNWTO

Regarding the absence in the organization of countries as important as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, Pololikashvili remarked that they left during the terms of the two previous general secretaries “because they were not happy with the projects that were in those stages.”

Now that “is going to have another focus, so that they come back” because in issues such as education, innovation and digitization, the United States and the United Kingdom are leaders “and we need them to be with us,” he said.

Pololikashvili explained that they are working with governments, but, in addition to the pandemic, in the case of the United States there has been a change of Administration.

It is a “long and difficult” process, which he hopes can bear fruit because US President Joe Biden is a defender of multilateralism and they have also had “very positive signs.”

During his tenure, no country has left the UNWTO, stressed the Secretary General, and two have joined, Palau in Micronesia (Oceania) and Antigua-Bermuda, in the Caribbean, which although they are small, live mainly from tourism.