Just two days after Australians learned that their international borders are likely to remain shut until the second half of 2022 (except for one or two ‘travel bubbles’), leaders of 23 global travel companies have started lobbying US President Joe Biden to reopen international travel – warning of dire economic consequences if America’s borders remain closed.
The 23 – who include some of the world’s biggest airlines, cruise lines and hotel chains – have written a letter to Biden, suggesting travel between the US and UK could be a good start.
The letter notes that current science, the success of the US vaccine rollout, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s own guidance allow for steps toward a safe resumption of international travel and visitation.
“While US borders remain closed to much of the world, the remarkable scientific advancements to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and the tremendous vaccine deployment achieved by your administration have allowed the safe resumption of many activities,” the letter reads.
“For all its economic and cultural contributions, international travel should be among them and it will hasten the economic recovery we all desire.”
The situation in Australia is similar but perhaps more extreme. Unlike almost every other country, Australia forbids its citizens and permanent residents from leaving for overseas, unless they are heading to New Zealand or have special exemption to travel farther afield. Qantas chief Alan Joyce has warned that Australia risks becoming a “hermit state” if its borders remain sealed for too long.
The Australian government has advanced no timeline for opening the borders. The closest would seem to be a recent comment by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Facebook, advising that borders would open only “when it is safe to do so”.
The budget assumes borders will remain closed at least until the middle of 2022, aside from certain exemptions.
Nobody wants borders opened if it is unsafe, but the absence of any roadmap towards reopening does not help the travel industry. The economic fallout from border closure is worsened by a sudden deterioration in trade, and relations, with Australia’s biggest trading partner, China.
Supporters of border closure, however, point to Australia’s success in controlling the pandemic. So far, Australia has recorded 910 deaths from Covid-19. The US has recorded 597,785 deaths – quite a difference.
In the US, the letter to Biden urges the establishment of a public-private task force by the end of May to develop a risk-based, data-driven roadmap for safely reopening international travel to the US.
The letter says efforts toward reopening US borders should start by pursuing a “public health corridor” between the US and Britain, given the UK’s importance as a travel market and its similar pace of vaccinations and declining infection rates. On Friday, the UK categorized the US in the “amber” middle tier of its new “traffic light” system for international travel.
The letter also urges the administration to utilize the upcoming G7 summit to seek commitments from other world leaders to develop and implement a global framework for reopening international travel.
“The US must be a global leader in restarting international travel,” the letter says. “Using science and data as our guide, it is possible to reopen our borders and establish these important public health corridors.”
The letter says steep declines in international travel in 2020 resulted in the loss of US$150 billion in US export income and 1.1 million domestic jobs, according to figures provided by the US Travel Association. If nothing is done to lift entry restrictions, the US is projected to lose an additional US$175 billion by the end of this year.
Though positive signs for US domestic leisure travel have been widely reported, international and business-related travel – which together comprised more than a third of direct-travel jobs in the US in 2019 – remain almost completely halted, with a recovery for both expected to take years without significant policy action.
Click here to view the full letter.
Written by Peter Needham
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…in contrast with australia, australia is still better despite failure of the vax roll out, it at least opened travel with another country new zealand who used to be australia biggest inbound business… the u.s. is still completely closed to everyone despite success in it’s vax roll out… the oz government has no time line for reopening borders and so is america… hello..