After one full year of zero revenue resulting from Government lockdowns, ACITA is calling for the Government to show the public that they have a plan.
This plan should include benchmarks (eg. a certain percentage of the population being vaccinated, in conjunction with enhanced testing) that will restore consumer confidence and bring hope to many Canadians, many of whom are suffering mentally due to being cut off from family members who live in other countries. Instead, travel.gc.ca has chosen to spend money on social media campaigns, with the slogan "Get the facts. Stay in Canada". Facebook posts contain the additional narrative: "Don't book that trip just yet. Get the facts to stay safe."
ACITA maintains that these ads are doing nothing more than putting fear of the future into the hearts and minds of Canadians, when instead, the Government should be showing the public that they have a plan for recovery.
Canada.ca's statistics show that 1% of reported cases are due to travel outside Canada, with another .8% of reported cases having been exposed to a traveller. Source: https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid-19-cases.html#fn3
With such a low rate of cases being travel-related, ACITA questions why the Government has put such strict measures in place, including:
- cancellation of all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico until April 30th
- shut-down of all International Airports with the exception of Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto & Montreal
- closure of Regional Airports in most Provinces
- mandatory 3 day Hotel quarantine for travellers returning from International travel
The restrictive measures listed above have all but shut down the entire travel industry including the small businesses of Independent Travel Advisors. They are continuing to operate their businesses, repatriating Canadians stranded in other countries, facilitating trip cancellations, processing Future Travel Credits for Airlines and Travel Suppliers and assisting their clients with Insurance claims - all without receiving any revenue.
ACITA will continue to advocate for their members (there are 12,000 Independent Travel Advisors across Canada) until the Government steps up to ensure that they will not be a forgotten casualty. Since June 2020, they have had over 200 meetings with Members of Parliament, Policy Advisors, Ministers and Members of the Senate.
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