Why Tourism Needs to Step Up and Push for Vaccine Equity
Photo Credit: The travel industry must play a role in addressing lagging vaccinations around the world. Flickr Commons / Jorge Franganillo
Skift Take
No vaccine access for all? No tourism recovery. It's playing out already, with more lives being lost senselessly. The travel industry should act fast and figure out how it can be part of the solution.
In March 2020, when the world stood still and countries sealed borders, it was impossible to imagine vaccines emerging by year-end. The global travel industry might not have believed that traveler demand would begin manifesting in 2021 and in some cases surpass 2019 levels.
Science is not only bringing the travel recovery to a restart this year, but it is also saving millions of lives — in spite of the over three million lost globally over the last year. The power of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines is being witnessed in the U.S., for example, where travel began showing signs of recovery the first week of April.
As of this month, 60 percent of Americans are unafraid to hit the road again, a pandemic survey high, according to Longwoods International’s just-released data. Europe is also preparing to reopen after more than a year of isolation.
And yet as we speak, Covid is raging violently in a scenario the travel industry never imagined would repeat itself s
