The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable says the federal government should focus on testing and vaccination to protect Canadians from COVID, instead of "blanket, restrictive border and travel measures."
The group, which includes representatives from airports, airlines, hotels, and chambers of commerce across the country, says closing borders and preventing travel is simply not the solution.
"Travel bans and border restrictions are ineffective tools to halt Omicron as the variant has already taken hold in Canada," the Roundtable said in a statement.
"Introducing additional and overly restrictive travel measures at this time is not rooted in science, does little to stop the spread of the Omicron variant in Canada and creates an enormous amount of harm to an industry already on its knees."
The Tourism Roundtable says the Canadian travel and tourism sector has worked with government to ensure the safety of Canadians and those travelling to Canada for the past 20 months.
It points out that all air passengers must be fully vaccinated, must have tested negative for COVID-19 prior to travel, and are tested a second time upon arrival.
"Canada is the only country in the western world to test travellers twice," the group states. "No other activity in Canada can claim this degree of scrutiny, and no other country in the Americas or Western Europe maintains this level of precaution."
Roundtable members say they will continue to work with government on providing meaningful solutions that protect public health and safety, including efforts to increase vaccination rates, ramp up booster campaigns, and improve access to rapid at-home antigen tests.
"These common-sense measures will be incredibly helpful in protecting all Canadians against the most serious effects of COVID-19 and halting its spread," it states.
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