ACTA has strongly advocated to the federal government on the need to develop a clear Roadmap for Recovery.
Described in ACTA's 2021 Tourism and Travel Recovery Plan, ACTA has pointed out that while the travel industry is putting health and safety measures in place, it needs the government to work with industry on rapid testing, contact tracing, vaccine documentation and protocols in order to ease travel advisories and reduce quarantine measures over time.
ACTA has heard clearly from travel agencies and independent travel agents across Canada that without a roadmap to recovery from the government, it is difficult to make any plans for the future or to commit to applying for any of the government loan programs and amassing more debt. ACTA is making these points to government in its ongoing meetings.
Other countries & organizations also calling for a plan
ACTA is not alone in calling for a plan. The association participates in several Travel and Tourism Roundtables, both national and global, on how critical the need is for a plan to restart travel.
Earlier this week, and ahead of the G7 meeting being held in the U.K in June, leaders of the U.S. and UK aviation, travel and tourism industries presented Reopening US UK Air Travel to President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson.
Canadian business leaders, including ACTA and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, are urging the Canadian government to take action and finalize the roadmap to reopen Canada.
"Even with the roll out of vaccines well underway, ACTA understands that large events and widespread travel may not be possible today as we are still in the third wave," said Wendy Paradis, President, ACTA.
"However, projections show that Canada will be in very good shape with vaccines by mid to late summer of 2021. We need a roadmap that outlines clear metrics for re opening. We need to GET READY," she said.
Without a plan, Canada will be left behind
"We are already hearing of other countries reconsidering investing in Canada as a destination and as an outbound market, given Canada's lack of planning and conditions required for the restart of travel. We need the plan in order to keep Canada globally competitive...inbound and outbound," said Paradis.
ACTA's message to the government is clear; the travel industry cannot afford to wait until after the pandemic is over for a travel restart plan, given the lead time required for implementation. ACTA has urged the government to develop clear data driven criteria for the conditions required for the restart of travel that includes:
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A continued robust and effective vaccine rollout plan
A national testing and contact tracing strategy
Digital verification tools for international travel
Reduction of mandatory hotel stopover
Reducing or eliminating the 14 day quarantine
Easing of Travel Advisories
"We are encouraged that in ACTA meetings with Members of Parliament and senior government officials, we are hearing that planning is well underway. We are also finally seeing and hearing the government speak publicly about vaccine documentation and testing tools, and alignment with other G20 countries more and more over the past few weeks," said Paradis. "We expect this to continue as we get closer to the G7 Summit in early June. We understand there is some reluctance to roll out Canada's Roadmap for fear of sending mixed messages to Canadians while we are in the midst of a third wave."
ACTA meets with Health Canada this Friday to issue an urgent request for a Roadmap to Recovery and to discuss our recommendations.
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