Skift Take
By remaining silent on vaccine equity, the travel industry's big players are as accountable as vaccine-hoarding governments for a deepening tourism divide. Intrepid Travel is setting an example — will others follow?
On the cusp of travel’s summer reopening in vaccinated destinations, Skift advocated for the industry to step up and push for vaccine equity.
Three months later, the percentage of people in low income countries who have received one dose of Covid vaccines stands at 1.1 percent, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).
Meanwhile, Covid certificates in hand, Americans, Europeans and other privileged globetrotters are enjoying a “hot vaxxed summer” in their backyard, heading to the Caribbean, cruising, or vacationing long-haul. Vaccine tourism continues as well, while “quarantine tourism” is emerging amid the Delta variant and mounting travel restrictions.
It's a harrowing tale of two tourism industries — one that's experiencing an early economic recovery directly attributed to vaccines, and the other awaiting doses while reopening tourism-dependent economies to inoculated travelers at the risk of infecting their communities.
Let’s set aside, for now, vaccine hoarding by rich governments — a handful are already distributing or planning third booster shots — and their lack of a sense of responsibility to share jabs with less privileged, tourism-dependent destinations.
What can the tourism industry actually do to address the global inequity in vaccine distribution? Whether it’s influential organizations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council and the United Nations World Tourism Organization, or travel's largest stakeholders — where does the responsibility lie when focusing on economic recovery and pushing more travelers out the door, while contributing to a deepening divide?
“The global institutions that drive tourism — UNWTO, WTTC and other global constructs — have to make a stronger voice and have to be heard advocating for the tourism family,” said Jamaica tourism minister Edmund Bartlett, who most recently addressed vaccine equity concerns at the UNWTO Tourism Recovery Summit in Riyadh.
Bartlett told Skift that while a difficult conversation to have amid a pandemic, the drive must be to get those countries with the capacity to assist to step up to the table.
"I would urge WTTC to get back on track," said Bartlett, noting WTTC's strong relationship with “the industria
