Rediscovering travel in post-pandemic era: 2022 World Travel and Tourism Council Summit

포스트 코로나 시대 관광의 재발견…2022 WTTC 써밋 마닐라서 개막

The travel and tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Industry leaders and experts from around the world gathered in Manila to discuss ways to revive the sector.
Lee Rae-hyun brings the highlights from that session.

Some say life will never be the same as before the pandemic.
But others… are looking for ways to boost the travel industry and at least try to navigate a return to normal life.
The World Travel and Tourism Council being one of them holds an annual WTTC Summit.
This year, the mission is to maximize the inclusive and sustainable growth potential of the travel industry by partnering with governments, destinations, communities, and other stakeholders.

“This year’s WTTC Summit began on Wednesday in Manila,… under the theme of “Rediscovering Travel”… bringing together people from around the world who share the same values to solve social, environmental and economic challenges.”

Over 650 industry leaders from all over the world have gathered to participate in the three-day summit… to discuss how governments and businesses should do more… with travel restrictions now being lifted in many countries.
During the opening ceremony… President and CEO of WTTC, Julia Simpson, spoke about how COVID-19 has affected the global travel industry.

“The pandemic rewrote the rulebook on how we live and how we travel. It showed how totally inter-reliant we are. Businesses and governments need each other to make travel happen. And our whole sector relies on the community who host us.”

She also called on China… where borders are still closed… to look for signs of recovery and to reopen its economy to get the millions of people working in travel and tourism back to work.

According to research by the WTTC, COVID-19 hit employment in the travel and tourism industry the hardest… with a loss of more than 62 million jobs.
However, in 2021… the industry showed steady recovery… regaining 21 percent of jobs and was worth 5-point-8 trillion dollars… up 2-point-2 trillion from 2020.
By the end of this year, the industry is expected to be rebound even further and be worth over 8-point-3 trillion dollars.
But Simpson also called for ways to ensure that the industry can cope with another health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If we are to survive another pandemic… we need to fully integrate traveler’s health status into their digital travel documents. I think very good example is the EU Green Travel Pass. It’s now being adopted by 62 countries. Let’s find a single system for the world.”

While the 2022 WTTC Summit aims to rediscover the travel industry, it also marks beginning of a new, post-pandemic era for travel and tourism.
Lee Rae-hyun, Arirang News, Manila.

#travel #WTTC_Summit #pandemic

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