World travel body opposes vaccination as a travel requirement

THE World Travel and Tourism Council is against vaccination as a travel requirement as it may lead to discrimination.

The vice-president of government affairs at the organisation, Lola Uña Cárdenas, said at a dialogue on Monday that vaccination is not the only solution to re-opening borders safely. The council counts airlines, airports, hotels, tour operators and other players in the travel and tourism sectors as its members.

Ms Cárdenas said there are some countries that do not even have access to, or have a calendar for vaccinations. "We should not really discriminate against those who wish to travel, but have not been vaccinated."

She was speaking at the virtual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Business Advisory Council public-private dialogue on reopening borders for safe and seamless travel.

Although Singapore has not made vaccination a travel requirement for visitors, Minister for Transport of Singapore Ong Ye Kung suggested that jurisdictions work on mutual recognition of vaccination certificates.

He noted differential treatment for vaccinated and non-vaccinated travellers has social and policy implications. "What to do after recognition, is a policy question that can be decided on later, when more evidence and data (on transmissibility) become available."

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The deputy secretary of Singapore's Ministry of Transport, Han Kok Juan, said Singapore is meanwhile "very closely" monitoring the Covid situation in the Republic as well as in Hong Kong for the impending air travel bubble between the two cities, and is prepared to make adjustments as the situation evolves. He was asked whether the bilateral quarantine-free air-travel bubble would carry on in light of the rising community cases in the Republic recently, but did not give a definitive answer.

However, he said: "We learn from the experience of Australia and New Zealand. They have started the Tasman bubble. And, you must be prepared to make adjustments as the Covid-19 situation evolves."

The air-travel bubble is slated to take off on May 26 for the two Asian aviation hubs, but recent clusters in the city-state have called into question of whether the arrangement would be able to proceed as scheduled.

The secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Edward Yau, in his keynote address for the dialogue, said that "we shouldn't be discouraged by some of the hiccups, but rather we should learn from every step with all the experiences as we move forward".

He was referring to the last-minute suspension of the travel bubble last November due to a spike of cases in the territory. He added that the daily local unlinked cases in Hong Kong in recent weeks were a very small number or even down to zero on some of the days last week, with the seven-day moving average of unlinked cases yesterday at 0.1 case.

Ms Cárdenas also appealed to governments to standardise international mobility requirements, given that current rules vary within states and regions. "So, we have, from the private sector, one single request to governments, and we’ve been calling to governments to provide certainty and clarity."

Indeed, the chief executive of Singapore Business Federation, Lam Yi Young, said: "Public-private collaboration is key to developing a consistent regional framework that facilitates business travel and avoids a 'spaghetti bowl of rules' that can result in unnecessary costs, complexity and time spent in quarantine for travellers.

"The development of a regional framework, which allows economies to come on board when they are ready, will help to boost global economic recovery."

About 400 business leaders and government officials from the 21 Apec economies participated in the virtual event.

READ MORE: Are spiking community cases going to deflate Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble?