Global Covid-19 vaccination key to tourism industry recovery

And, speaking during the opening panel session of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) on Sunday, entitled ‘Tourism for a brighter future’, he warned that the success or otherwise in dealing with the pandemic will depend on whether countries can work together to find a solution to the ongoing crisis.

He said: “Countries can’t keep doing their own thing on their own. It’s not going to work.

“It will take the world five years for 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated. No travel is going to start until the whole world is vaccinated. You cannot have Europe vaccinated and Africa not vaccinated.

“It’s a matter of how equal we are. The new world is going to be much more equitable, a much more sustainable world for sure.”

Dr. Taleb Rifai, chairman ITIC and former Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)

According to figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the Covid-19 pandemic saw the loss of 1 billion arrivals in 2020 as countries were forced to close borders and flights were grounded. There was an estimated loss of $1 trillion in export revenues as well as the loss of over 100 million industry jobs worldwide.

However, Dubai continues to go from strength-to-strength since reopening to the world in July last year, leading the way in terms of coronavirus testing and being part of the UAE’s successful vaccination programme – to date almost 11.5 million vaccines have been administered across the entire country.

2,406 doses of the #COVID19 vaccine were given in the last 24 hours, to reach 11,450,769 as a total number of doses and with a rate of 115.78 doses per 100 people as vaccine distribution. #TogetherWeRecover

— NCEMA UAE (@NCEMAUAE) May 16, 2021

While praising the emirate’s approach, Rifai called on others to followed their lead and adopt a more universal approach to tackling the return of travel and tourism in a post-pandemic world, highlighting how some countries are relying on quarantine measures, others on PCR testing and some pinning their hopes on a vaccine passport.

“I think the world will be better but it needs people working together. You cannot do it on your own, it’s not going to work,” he said.

Rifai was joined on the panel by Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM); Scott Livermore, chief economist of Oxford Economics Middle East, Dubai; and Thoyyib Mohamed, managing director, Maldives Tourism Board.

Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)

Almarri revealed that Dubai’s Covid-19 restrictions will be eased further in the near future as the emirate continues its widespread vaccination drive and cases stabilise from the highs witnessed earlier this year.

And Livermore believed that the resurgence in the emirate’s tourism market will initially be led by domestic travel, which witnessed “record levels” in 2020, followed by leisure and, finally, the return of business travel.

“We expect around the world growth to rebound strongly and critically in a number of developed countries as excess savings built up during the crisis, and that could lead to a consumer boom which will also benefit travel and tourism spend,” he said.

“As we saw towards the end of last year, in Dubai, when hotel occupancy was above the year earlier, when the conditions are right, travellers will return, and we expect a strong return and a strong bounce back in leisure travel, especially when you combine that positive economics in key origin markets,” he added.