WTTC Global Summit: Clarity, certainty and collaboration keys to travel recovery

More than 600 leaders from travel, government, the private sector and media are gathered in Cancun for the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit, the organization’s first in-person event since 2019. Thousands more are participating online. 

Throughout the first day of sessions – with speakers ranging from outgoing WTTC chair and Hilton CEO and president Chris Nassetta to incoming chair and Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald and Airbnb founder and CEO Brian Chesky – common themes emerged about what it will take for the industry to emerge from the devasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the WTTC, in 2020 the global travel and tourism sector lost almost $4.5 trillion with more than 62 million jobs lost. 

In his opening remarks, Nassetta urged fellow travel leaders to collaborate to “propel the industry forward.” 

Calling the fast developing of vaccines a “modern miracle,” Nassetta says now the industry must push for re-opening, aided by technology.

“Our sector needs to lead the way in advocating internationally for the opening of borders and common sense approaches to ensure safety and consistency at every step of the traveler journey as we progress through this recovery. We can do this. We can open borders. We can get people moving. We just have to be intelligent and coordinated in how we do it,” he says.

“It’s going to be important that we work together with countries and with the private sector all over the world to bring it to life with existing tech we have and with new technology solutions where we need them.”

Later in the day, in a taped interview, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky echoed that need for collaboration and announced the company now has agreements with more than 100 destination marketing organizations across more than two dozen countries. The partnerships are part of an initiative Airbnb launched in June 2020 to support local economic recovery efforts with a focus on rural communities. 

“I think diversity is much more than diversity of people. It also means diversity of communities. It means spreading economics to many more towns and communities all over the world,” Chesky says.

And I think this is a revolution in travel... that will rival modern aviation and the modern hotel industry... when suddenly people can travel anywhere... I think it’s going from people traveling to 20 destinations to people traveling everywhere.”

But many speakers expressed concern that lack of consistency and clarity in messaging is hampering the recovery in markets around the world.

During a panel discussion, Carnival’s Donald called for a “science-based, uniform approach” in policies from stakeholders within each country, such as health ministries, transportation departments and tourism sectors, and from one country to create the consistency that is needed for travelers to feel secure. 

Certares founder and senior managing director Greg O’Hara reiterated that sentiment, putting it in financial terms. 

“What we are looking for... is certainty. So whatever the friction cost is of traveling – understanding what that is and being able to either pay or not pay that friction cost,” O’Hara says.

“But allow certainty so the traveler can book, the traveler can plan and the companies can service that demand.”

And Rita Marques, Portugal's tourism secretary, says the travel and tourism industry must push global health leaders to provide clarity.

“We still have a huge barrier to overcome – it’s the perception of the risk,” Marques says.

“Health authorities are in the pilot seat. We have to have a clear message from the World Health Organization saying that traveling doesn’t bring any extra risk as long as you comply with the rules. 

But in a one-one-one interview, Greece tourism minister Harry Theocharis offered an alternative. Last week the country began a phased reopening for international visitors, using a five-part plan that includes requiring proof of vaccine or negative PCR test.

“We are saying how we are going to work... Once and for all this is our system. And then the pressure is on the other governments to answer to their citizens why they are blocking the recovery,” Theocharis says. 

He says Greece has moved away from a risk management approach – the horizontal, geographical strategy that much of the world used early in the pandemic - to an individual risk-based approach that assesses the risk of each individual traveler. Theocharis acknowledges it has taken substantial work to create his country’s protocols, and has been even more difficult to implement them in port cities due to the complexity of dealing with cruise lines and port authorities, but he says those types of complications cannot stand in the way of recovery.

“In order to restart, we have to walk the walk,” he says.

“You cannot restart by closing your eyes and wishing the problem away. The problem is still here, we cannot deny it. We cannot just say open tourism and it will work any way. We have to work to make it happen.” 

And during a panel on rebuilding traveler confidence, Fernando Valdes Verelst, Spain’s tourism secretary, says in May the country will do a pilot program of a digital certificate in all 46 of its airports and expects to open its borders to international visitors in June. 

And Marian Muro, director general of Turisme de Barcelona, says her city is working to develop new marketing content and new digital tools so it will be ready to welcome visitors.

“We had been more concerned about promotion than promotion and management. Now we are in the stage of promotion and management and digital tools will help us. So whenever a visitor comes to Barcelona, the visitor will be automatically be connected to tools to help them know how many people are there in any attraction or the safety measures or whether there is a queue and offer alternatives or will tell the tourist to visit later,” she says.

“The city will accomplish two things – first to give a better service to those visitors and second to give a better quality of life to residents.”