UNWTO Global Tourism Crisis Committee Set of Recommendations

Madrid (Spain) – March 31, 2020 /travelindex.com/ Supporting jobs and the economy through tourism: set of recommendations on measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and accelerate recovery to be approved and announced soon.

A new meeting of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee, chaired by UWTO Secretary General Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili, took place on Thursday, 26 March 2020.

The meeting, hosted in Madrid and conducted virtually for obvious reasons of public health, had as objective to debate and defines a set of recommendations on measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and accelerate recovery.

The debate carried out, with the participation of UN Agencies, Governments and private sector, allow to carry out a consistent exchange evaluations and proposals to serve as basis for the set of recommendations under elaboration.

The participants agreed on the diagnostic that tourism is one of the sectors most affected by the COVID 19 crisis, underlying at the same time that past crises showed us that tourism has the capacity to bounce back strongly and quickly after external shocks.

Therefore, the recommendations aim to support governments, the private sector and the international community in navigating the unparalleled social and economic emergency of COVID 19.

UNWTO will distribute within the coming days the set of measures and recommendations defined within this coordination mechanism – the Global Tourism Crisis Committee. We are pleased to inform that the foreseen measures will refer mainly to (a) managing the crisis and mitigating the impact, (b) providing stimulus & accelerating recovery and (c) preparing the sector for the future.

Some main pillars of the set of coming recommendations:

– Right now! Support companies’ liquidity through the creation a Tourism Emergency Fund to support most affected companies ensuring they can keep away from bankruptcy and restart operations after the emergency thus ensuring supply back in the market.

– Right now! Make sure tourism is part of the global emergency packages -Ensure national tourism administrations are included in the programmes stemming from international and regional organizations such as the World Bank, Regional Banks and the European Commission to support SMEs, infrastructure and other horizontal areas that impact on tourism.

– Right now! Review taxes and regulations and facilitate travel – facilitating new temporary exemptions or reductions of corporate taxes, air transport taxes (landing and parking fees, fuel charges), VAT on accommodation and restaurants, tourism taxes and other.

– Next steps! Place tourism firmly in the national agenda- ensure the inclusion of tourism in national priorities for its capacity to create jobs, promote economic growth and inclusion.

– Next steps! Promote new jobs and skills development -ensure measures are equally accessible to women and other groups, notably youth, people with disabilities, rural and indigenous communities, promoting a more inclusive and diversified local supply chain.

– Next steps! Domestic tourists are expected to be among the first to travel again and reinitiate demand- create plans for marketing activities and incentives that will facilitate domestic travel and encourage increased length of stay through competitive prices, special promotions or travel checks by employers especially to destinations heavily relied on tourism.

UNWTO will keep you informed and permanently updated on this important topic and will make available for you the approved content of the document soon.

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