The body that will carry out the review into reopening international travel has held its first meeting.
The global travel taskforce met today under the chairmanship of transport secretary Grant Shapps. The group includes several government departments, including the Department for Health and Social Care, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for International Trade as well as industry bodies, transport operators and travel agencies.
The taskforce will develop a risk-based framework and look at how existing measures, such as existing testing and isolation schemes, could be used to facilitate travel while managing the risk of imported cases and ‘variants of concern’.
Its scope will include considering “how to implement recommendations from the previous global travel taskforce, such as bubbles, to facilitate…business travel”.
The international travel review will take place in parallel with and be closely integrated with the review into Covid-status certification - informally known as vaccine passports, a term unliked by the Government - led by Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The taskforce has been asked to ensure “that any shorter-term changes act as a bridge to longer-term objectives on delivering vaccine certification to facilitate travel…and global standardisation of border measures”.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked the taskforce to report on 12 April; international travel will resume no earlier than 17 May 2021.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “We will not only consider the progress of our world-beating domestic vaccine programme but also need to review where destination countries have got to with both vaccine and testing capabilities.”
However, The Business Travel Association has told BTN Europe that it was disappointed it had not been involved.
CEO Clive Wratten said, "The BTA was not part of today’s global travel taskforce meeting. Whilst this is disappointing, we have regular conversations with the Department for Transport and expect to contribute either in future meetings or through written submissions as the roadmap evolves."
Wratten added: "It is important that the plan considers business, leisure, aviation, rail and maritime transport. The travel ecosystem supports each other and must be considered as a whole if we are to reopen international borders.
"On Thursday, there is the All Party Parliamentary Group for Business Travel where we will be discussing with MPs the specific needs of the travel management community to survive the ongoing pandemic, and how we can return to travelling with confidence.”
Commenting on Shapps' announcement on LinkedIn of the meeting, Wayne Pollard, account director EMEA for GetThere, said, "Please remain conscious that business travel will be at the heart of our economic recovery. Enabling business travel in a safe way is nothing short of essential.
"We are not just talking about business travellers flying for face to face meetings to drive global business this is doctors, prfoessors, site engineers, aid workers - the list is very long. We need to work together to open up our industry which to this point has been devistated by Covid-19. Getting businesses back on track through travel and enabling global business is critical to global recovery!"