According to the president of the Asia-Pacific region of a travel services company, the travel industry will have to “roll with the punches” as government requirements continue to evolve with the pandemic. .
“It is important that the industry continues to grow for the foreseeable future,” Todd Handcock of the Collinson Group told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
He pointed out that Hong Kong this week announced plans to ban flights from eight countries, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the city is “facing a very dire situation of a major community outbreak at any time.”
Opposite, UK is set to relax testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers, Handcock added.
Testing and vaccinations will continue to be part of the travel process into 2022 and possibly 2023, he said, referencing a recent survey Collinson conducted with CAPA – the Center for Aviation.
“We’re going to have to keep rolling with the punches and adjust as things change,” he said.
He also said he did not expect the omicron to cause “significant” changes.
Targets and obstacles ahead
When asked if verifying tests and vaccination status could be simplified for travel, Handcock said the goal was to have an interactive, digital system that could be used used globally.
But he added: “We still have a long way to go” to get there.
Increasing vaccination rates around the world would also be good for anyone traveling, he said.
Developed countries are already ahead in providing booster shots, he said, while much of the world hasn’t yet.
Resounded sentiments of experts like that of the World Health Organization, he added that Covid variants will emerge as long as there are large, unvaccinated populations.
About 59% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine – but only 8.8% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to data collated by Our World in Data. .
The WHO said on Thursday that vaccine distribution is uneven will undermine the global economic recovery, and low vaccine coverage in many countries is a major factor in the emergence of variations such as delta and omicron.
