Map to the Future Accelerating the European Recovery JAPANESE

hello everyone i'm ross adkins from bbc news it's good to be speaking to you from london and welcome to this latest strategic insight session at the wttc's global summit and whether you're watching in cancun or in lots of other places around the world you're very welcome and the broad theme of this summit is uniting the world for recovery and we're going to take that theme and look at it through the european prism for the next 45 minutes because this session is titled map to the future accelerating the european recovery and all of you watching i'm sure will know the challenges that the european tourism sector has been facing let me just share with you a couple of figures this is the largest region for international business spending in the world in 2019 over 600 billion dollars were spent that's 37 of all international spending but the impact of the pandemic has been enormous there's been a 10 fall in jobs in the sector in europe international visitor spend is down by a staggering 400 billion dollars that's over 60 percent and travel and tourism's contribution to gdp in europe fell by almost 50 percent because of the pandemic so the challenges are considerable of course there was a little respite in the summer of 2020 but now the third second and the third waves have come along in some countries and so the sector's looking for the summer of 2021 and beyond to plot away out of this and i guess when we need to consider how that's done there are some big themes that governments and industry bodies are wrestling with from vaccine passports to quarantine policy to foreign travel advice to financial support for the sector to long-term mitigation policies such as social distancing and mask wearing and as we consider all of those factors it's probably also worth introducing the wttc's four principles for trying to restore international mobility which are international coordinated approach individual assessments rather than country assessments health and hygiene protocols and broader support plans long-term support plans for the sector and it's going to be fascinating to hear from our guests as to whether they align with those wttc principles whether they see those as central to the way this recovery is shaped well if that's the context let me introduce you to our esteemed panel we're joined by caroline labouche ceo of atu france which is the france tourism development agency roberto martinoli is president and ceo of silversea cruises frederick hewson is the chief executive of the tui group nigel huddleston mp is minister of tourism for the uk government and robin ingle is chairman and ceo of ingle international all five of you thank you very much you will all have spent the last 12 months or more trying to help your countries or your businesses respectively navigate the vast challenges the pandemic has thrown up for this sector i'm interested to start by hearing what's worked for you what things have you learned in the last 12 months that you're able to take and place as part of your plans for the coming months for the coming challenges and perhaps caroline we can start with you in france all right thank you russ um for giving me the floor i think that we've all um learned a lot during this pandemic it's been a test and learn situation and we've had to learn our lesson very quickly regarding the need for coordination regarding the need for more data and regarding of the need um to um for solidarity sorry i think that we've learned that we absolutely need to act um as a group and be um very proactive in terms of coordination so your emphasis is on coordination roberto what about you well i think that advanced peer communication is always been extremely important and understanding that we've been facing something that was absolutely navigating uncharted waters along with this term coming from the cruise business uh of course this has been a challenge but uh besides coordination which is very important i think that advanced clear communication is paramount to move forward in the most efficient way and the obviously cooperation between operators and legislators is another very important thing because we all have some expertise in what we really do in our particular field that can be definitely put at the service of the legislators to make the best possible choices can i ask you to explain a little more about what you mean by communication what what would you like to be done better within europe in the coming summer well i mean it's not only about europe of course but certainly in europe as well is that uh there is a lot of people uh you know like communicating and speaking about how do we need to go i mean in terms of facing this particular situation and there is a lot of different opinions and different uh i mean approaches that are communicated so this confuses a lot our consumers so it would be great if there was a little bit better i mean you know i have to say alignment on this type of communication which is probably a desire that is not difficult to satisfy but it would be really most welcome thank you friedrich i wonder what your experience with 2e has been and how you plan to navigate the next few months i think the first thing we learned is that safe travel is possible if you apply health protocols and at the same time people like their vacations we had two and a half million customers which is just around ten percent of customers last year ten percent of a normal season um but the two and a half million customers we had only one percent a 100 000 seven days incident so it was you know very successful applied health protocols at the same time customer feedback was very positive on vacation so it is possible to combine health with with you know a pleasure holiday and the second thing i i think we learned all is that testing is not a big problem so customers think testing is okay of course letter of law test and antigen test better than pcr because it delivers results immediately but but testing is okay what's turning off customers is guarantee i mean current thing is something which is a big issue and and here my view would be particularly in life of the new vaccination programs and so on and so on that vaccination is very important testing is very important with immediate results but current in is something which is which is toxic to to to the travel industry and and and and maybe these are the two which i would highlight most very interesting and you lead us on to one of the points of tension and nigel uh huddleston if i could bring you in here there has been tension hasn't there between the uk government and its quarantined policy and some people within the sector um yes but i would say overall uh probably the real lesson learned is is the positive relationship between um government and public bodies and and the private sector and businesses and that partnership that cooperation has been really important um you're absolutely right uh you know there's no easy options there's no easy answers here i don't think any of us would pretend otherwise and and every single um option we pursue has a has a downside but i do think it's important we've got to bring the public with us as well because they're concerned and they're alarmed the sector's done a great job at actually reassuring customers and the customer base that we can travel and travel safely but we have to do so cautiously uh still because we're in a global pandemic and you know in a global pandemic uh there's no such thing as completely safe travel but we need to do everything we can to reassure customers both domestically and internationally uh that all stakeholders government and businesses are taking their responsibilities seriously and actually i think we've largely seen that actually and if your aspiration is to offer reassurance and also to allow travel when it's safe when you look back over the last 12 months what are the things that you feel have gone well that you could apply into a longer term strategy not just for the uk but for europe more broadly yeah i mean nobody wants the the restrictions uh measures in place any longer than necessary but none of us really know at the moment how long necessary is but i think that transparency is key i say that public private partnership is really important speed of decision making is really important as well in recognizing that we're doing so with imperfect information um and communicating as clearly as possible um and i think things like um announcing furlough schemes which actually were pivotal to saving jobs in in europe across the travel hospitality sector as well as many others were were really key as well so that kind of speed of decision making and announcing policies and the announcements as well as the policies themselves the mere announcement of policies and giving that reassurance that government is there to work with a private sector to secure jobs itself was really important and and despite all the criticisms i would say actually most governments across europe and indeed around the world have have acted quite quickly actually over the last year in order to try and reassure uh business and industry as well as dealing with the health uh issues and that's been really important to make sure we've got a a base travel and tourism sector on which we can recover minister for the moment thank you very much already two big themes coming out how best to coordinate and how best to communicate robin let me bring you in from thailand now how has your last 12 months shaped your plans for the coming 12 months and beyond well our 12 months actually started about four months before because we have operations in china and beijing and shanghai we saw what was happening in china ahead of time we knew we had to respond to it and because we go across different kinds of industries we deal with mobility insurance travel insurance products globally um our partnership for example the head offices in paris um on the reinsurance risk side it's in london uk the rest of the businesses are in toronto canada and we provide healthcare and technology so immediately working with the wttc because i have to say that from march on the wttc actually provided great guidance in this and being on the calls weekly really helped integrating our technology so that we could start creating interoperability of health passes and travel passes creating insured products so that uh individual clients and countries could actually provide some kind of covered peace of mind was one of the first things we did and i got to tell you we had to convince the insurers they were risk adverse even though the brunt of the health issues were related governments had to take that on it wasn't the insurance industry that took that on they took on the trip cancellation trip interruption side of it uh but the health was taken by governments was a huge burden globally and i think one of the things we had to realize is this is going to be short term and what's nice about coming uh to this discussion is that communication is the key governments had to make it up as they go because nobody really had a firm idea what was happening here companies had to at the same time so this isn't you know this is a human uh issue a global issue we have to remind everybody that so let's let's immediately get into this issue of communication because all five of you in different ways have referenced it and while no one would disagree that clear communication to the public whether they're traveling or not would be something to aspire to in reality this is a complex equation because we have the french government offering one type of advice the uk government offering another the italian government offering another and then we have big companies as well also taking different positions and also communicating direct with their consumers so i'd be interested to hear from from all of you how do we go from the aspiration of wanting to communicate clearly to managing to do that because that's far from easy and caroline in france how would you how do you align that how do you align what the french government wants to say what french businesses want to say and then what businesses and governments around europe want to say well we are very coordinated between both of the public authorities the government and the industry and that's that's absolutely key so that uh transparency and trust are there and uh but and so that we can uh ensure that the right measures and the right announcements are made um so we have a weekly uh meeting and even more often sometimes with um key players key stakeholders from the travel and tourism industry and so that's how we've been working for one year which of course is quite heavy but at the same time i think it ensures that the right messages and and the right measures are taken at the right time to rebuild trust to rebuild the tourism flows that's absolutely key nigel hudderson do you sometimes get frustrated on behalf of the uk government that what you're saying doesn't necessarily line up with what other governments are saying um i wouldn't i wouldn't say it's frustrated as such but i think there's a lot of empathy uh amongst uh you know government ministers and i talked to of the tourism ministers around europe and the world uh fairly frequently um i think we do all recognize that we're dealing with a fast-moving situation and uh and probably we shouldn't confuse um clarity of communication because i think most governments have tried to to be very clear with with that speed of decision making which means sometimes things change really really really quickly and we recognize that's incredibly inconvenient to both the public and and businesses but we have to deal with the world as it is and recognize that sometimes in particular with the virus we have a sudden surge and there's an expectation and requirement to respond and react incredibly quickly recognizing that inconvenient so i'm not going to stand here and criticize any government i think every government and as you said as well actually robin you know companies are the same thing they've had to respond very very quickly to circumstances and that inhibits clarity of communication notice of change and all of those things that in a normal world we would desire but the reality is we just can't operate in that environment at the moment we have to respond incredibly quickly and that means the occasional very quick inconvenient changes that we all have to deal with and so if we bear those points in mind roberto friedrich and robin perhaps friedrich first how does a company navigate the communication challenge here where governments where individual governments are all saying and advising slightly different things how can that be addressed on a europe-wide level well we all understand that this is a very challenging situation because first of all we are we are facing something that is not completely known we are learning a lot about it every day so we have to be uh understanding that we are we need to be active with a lot of agility because as it was said uh i mean you know there is a there are many things happening very very quickly there is need to intervene we are looking into something that is uh partly unknown and unfortunately the other thing is that there is not an homogeneous situation and we are we that are operating across countries because by the nature of the business that we do we move from one country to another i mean you know with our ships we feel that uh very strongly the problem is that uh you know when things are changing from one country to another even if they are close to each other it's a big challenge so what i'm saying is that uh uh understanding that there are a lot of challenges that uh but yes the aspiration is to be a little more coordinated where possible uh with the again with the understanding that it's not going to be easy but the more we can make it happen the the better results we will achieve in allowing people to move uh more confidently roberta i want to understand this who do you want to help you better coordinate is it the individual governments is it the european union is it the wttc which which bodies which people can help that achieve the goal that you've just described well i think that the wttc is doing a great job because i mean they are trying to convene all of this information i mean you know to to the various interests of the parties i think that uh there there is but there needs to be a little bit more of an interaction between among governments and between governments and operators that can give their contribution uh with the aim to be a little more consistent if we can and where we can that would ideally be a great i would say a push to to return quicker into service and to have better results in a shorter period of time friedrich what about tui's perspective on this what could make the experience for you as a company but also for your customers smoother between countries because of course you're the nature of your business is that you're moving people between one country and another i mean first of all um i think when you look at some of the anecdotes right i mean some of the communication difficulties and i don't say it's easy i i say it's difficult but but i'll give you one example i mean um um you know in in germany that there was because it was complying to to rules and the incidents in mallorca was very low the borders to mallorca opened for flying right at the same time the german governments decided that travel to the baltic coast in germany was not possible so people asked wait a moment i mean you can fly to mallorca but you cannot fly or you cannot drive your own car to a camping ground in in the baltic sea so and people say wait a minute you hop on a plane and that shouldn't be dangerous and at the same time it should be dangerous if you go with it with a camping ground in in in germany you see it's different audiences and it's and it's different purpose and at the same time for example another anecdote is now the greek government has said you know um they accept one you know one vaccination breads you know to a crete or or the islands at the same time you know them coming back maybe it's an orange country or whatever they need to go into county so it seems to be that different interests different audiences somehow cause problems and and i think what what would be incredibly helpful if um the communication was based on the same let's say um uh results or facts right if we said you know if incidents are low then we can do this if incidents are this then we can do something else but it seems to be that a difference that um that sometimes uh political interests are different of course you know i mean the greek have enormous interest in and capture tourism and it's maybe less of an interest in to send brits to to greece so i think you know you know having the same rules let's say or fact-based would be that would be helpful and also maybe the same consequences or an agreed consequence of certain facts that you know maybe it's not only a communication problem maybe it's also a problem that we are working according to different rules so you're looking for a standardized policy approach across europe and nigel huddleston mp minister for tourism in the uk let me bring you in and i should emphasize mr hudson i'm not expecting you to speak on behalf of every government across across europe of course but in the uk's experience the uk now has a system in place for for travel it's got another traffic light system coming down the track as well but do you have a as a government have an aspiration to align your systems with other government systems or is that not something the uk would would seek to do no we we absolutely do want to do that you're right the global travel task force which was set up in the uk is is working to to encourage just that to try and help work uh together with other governments to get global travel moving again that's in the best interest of uk travelers in the uk economy but also globally i mean travel and tourism is hugely important we all know that everyday on this call uh knows uh so we absolutely want to work and are working very closely with our eu partners and indeed around the world and you know this is one of the the myths of brexit actually we have left the eu but we still work incredibly closely with our european partners because it's in our mutual interest to do so so so we're keeping very very close particularly on the technology developments the systems of vaccination uh certification and so on uh that are being developed across europe and we want to work in partnership so that we can enable travel um you know let's let's be honest it's not going to be easy to travel it's not going to be seamless to travel over the next few months and potentially years but we want to make it as simple as possible and i think that's a shared goal uh around most major economies and that lines up with with what friedrich was saying robin if i can bring you in here the the dominant body in european politics is of course the european union are you surprised that there hasn't been a greater level of standardization across eu countries in terms of what people can and can't do both businesses and travelers no and and look i have private business so i can i can say some things that maybe others can't um governments are there to protect their citizens and their citizens are the ones that vote you have to understand that so the eu is the eu but it's all also made up of a number of different countries and they have to be worried about the culture the thinking processes of those individuals in their countries i'm not surprised whatsoever um and what's happening now and i you know got to go back there was false information lack of information at the beginning of the pandemic it was very confusing and consumers unfortunately they have this kind of long-term short-term memory it's very interesting so there was a lot of bad information now the scientific community the governments have worked together they have a lot of data they understand what's going on so for example there were rules i had to do to leave the uk to arrive in uh well get on the airline to arrive in thailand i had to fill out forms and very complex i had to go through quarantine but i had to suck it up that's the way it is right now and i wanted to see my son who's been teaching in chiang mai and i haven't seen him in two years and the only way i could do it is do that the same with a pcr test i had a lot of people telling me that consumers would not take the pcr test because it cost too much if they want to go someplace they will pay that to do it and we're not going to be pre pandemic where everybody was trying to shave the money down on a trip to some place and you know all inclusive go and enjoy yourself we're now getting back to a point where people are looking at what they want to do where they want to go and how they want to spend their money and their time and it's not going to be easy it's like nigel was saying but we i think the whole industry has a duty now to help the consumer we're trying with technology we're trying with our products we're trying to give them protection get that peace of mind get that fear with but i think all of us have to work to try to create that consumer journey and help them with that so they understand what to do but that is a fascinating point that you're making robin the consumer expectations of what they'll pay and what they have to do are being fundamentally shifted you're arguing because of the pandemic i'd like to ask all of you perhaps starting with caroline when we talk about a european recovery i assume we're not talking about just going back to where we were at the start of this pandemic we're presumably heading in the direction of a new type of travel and tourism so from france's perspective how do you see the the way consumers behave and the holidays they want and the travel they want to do changing when the recovery is in place uh you're right chris i think that we've seen a number of changes but also some acceleration in a number of trends for example staycation um there was of course this huge movement of staycation but it was just a reminder that for most european countries domestic tourism is key at least for france it's two-thirds of the tourism industry so that was a great reminder of how important proximity and and and domestic tourism are important uh i think that um this might be something we might build on um we were looking for long-haul tourists i think that we had just forgotten that it was very important as well to serve and give a better service and incentives for local tourism as well the second issue is in terms of trends would probably be sustainability i think that people have observed that maybe the pandemic could be due to human activity in a certain way and probably each one should behave in more responsible way that's the second global trend which has been accelerated i believe um the third trend might be authenticity i think that people are looking for um you know some troubles that are um a travel that matter uh really travel that matter and uh that might be something else maybe um we'll see more um longer term stays and unless uh you know short uh trips to another european city during the weekend but that might might be another trend so we probably have as an industry as uh and as operators ntos we have to um adapt to that situation well you're quite right that the word sustainability and authenticity appear to come up more and more in conversations around travel and tourism let's pick up on the staycation idea nigel huddleston uh minister of tourism for the uk uh anecdotally i know this to be the case and i've also seen the data uh brits are holidaying in the uk on a scale that we've not seen for a very long time the question is when they can go abroad do you think they'll simply revert to what they used to do um look brits brits love to travel both domestically and and overseas actually i mean disproportionately compared to many other nations we do love traveling it's in our hearts in our blood so i know lots of brits want to travel and want to get overseas again and i'm sure many of them will again this year but certainly we have seen opportunities to really push the domestic market in a way that we haven't seen in a while and many people who've not had a british holiday for quite a few years last year in particular and i'm sure again uh this year we'll have the british holiday and realize actually it's a pretty good experience and good value for money and there's a variety of things you can do here so i think we need to leverage that um that interest in the uk market the staycation market um but also um a bit like in france actually we need to make sure that we push the whole offering of the uk so it's not just the coastal resorts and the beauty spots but the cities as well because i think the cities are going to be a little bit slower to recover with the impact on you know the event sector and business travel and so on so so whilst there are pockets of the uh uk domestic market that i think did okay last year and probably will do well this year we've also got pockets where they need marketing they need to push they need the support as well and also the seasons as well we want to make sure that a british holiday isn't just a may to october thing but actually throughout the whole of the year we need to encourage people so if they go back to majorca or before or anywhere else this summer or next summer great but we need to capture them to have a shoulder season holiday in the uk as well and i think we're seeing an appetite for that which is uh which is good for the long-term future of the british market very interesting so that's the uk government emphasizing the need to evolve the tourism and travel calendar and friedrich and roberto let me bring you in here on on robin's point that he's seeing a shift in what consumers are prepared to pay and also what they want in return for their investment in their travel and tourism friedrich can you see do you anticipate a shift from the european consumer sure so first of all i mean you know vacation has been throughout the last 10 years the most important consumer purchase per year so so it is a top of mind purchase and it will stay a top of mind purchase you make a decision for yourself for your family for your partner and so on it's a difficult purchase it's an enjoyable purchase it's an important purchase the interesting thing i think what we see right now on macroeconomic data is the savings rates per households is actually up from average europe 11 to 17 and that actually says people have not spent money and there's an enormous pent-up demand the second what i see is in market research there is a change but not so much sustainability it's more about safety and about flexibility so people have the experience okay i had booked a holiday i couldn't go to the holiday i was actually trying to get a reimbursement of my prepayment you know that kind of flexibility has been part of our product for the last uh 12 months we have made it part of a product and that will stay because people have now the experience and the short term experience you know that they actually want to be able to shift you know if there is certain restrictions and so on i think that's very important that we don't see any difference so much is actually the the way of how to make holidays but here what we see is that people have been actually at least the last six months or let's say nine months very opportunistic so they said usually i go to the canaries okay canaries is closed now i go to majorca majorca is closed i go to crete i mean it is people in the northern hemisphere of europe are hungry for sun and and they are hungry for relaxation and when it's possible to open a certain destination there will go and that's the reason why my personal projection is i think the move we have seen right now from greece being the first mover saying one vaccination of brits is okay and we by the way also said we will vaccinate everybody on the islands of of of of greece i mean it's a very smart move because they you know i think the the the instinct will be yeah i book where it's possible and and therefore you know if we can make as i said safety is important flexibility is important um you know if you can make something trusted safe and trusted flexible people will immediately move because the money is at hand as i said the savings savings ratios are very high very strong themes there safety and flexibility robin you want to come in yeah i agree totally we've seen that right across the board as there was fear in the consumer they were afraid of their health and they were upset and frustrated with the vouchers that were given out the trip cancellation issues that happened and there were a lot of companies i got to tell you in the insurance industry there was a lot of companies that were pointing fingers at other insurance groups rather than sitting down with the consumer and sorting it out we had to get involved many times to do that and i think that's a clear message is safety investments and health information about health that's a very important part because i can tell you for example because of the fast vaccinations in the uk i can guarantee you that the uk will resonate well part of what we do right now is ensure international students traveling around the world there's a huge interest now in the uk because of the vaccinations and international students are not just a short-term it's coming back to caroline there are long-term stays they bring a lot to the economy so there's some benefit there so i do think there's a change coming and it's being built by tui for example it's being built by the different governments and it's being built by individual companies like ourselves to target those people roberto let me bring you in here i'm interested to hear your reflections on how you think the consumers expectations are changing as we go into this summer and beyond uh yeah sure i was saying that uh i echoes the the the the previous comments that were made about uh a huge amount of pent-up demand that is surfacing in this moment so what what happened is that at the very beginning in the big chaos that was generated by this pandemic everybody panicked and you know everybody was frozen but i would say that now we are getting a lot of push from consumers consumers want to go back the fact that they've been out of travel or i mean you know with the more complicated choices choices to be made and less available i mean has made them uh consider uh you know their future travel plans maybe in a little different way you know as was said before they've been considering other apps they were forced to consider other options and the other issue is that most definitely brands that have been more i would say uh better coordinated and doing things in a better way in terms of the refunds the reprotection and the sort of things have gained a huge amount of traction so the consumer now because they are probably they have more savings in their pockets and because they've been able to really see that there are differences around they are probably pointing their attention towards whoever has been the best performer what brands have been more solid in going through this and this has been pretty clear but what i think we are all observing at the moment in this they are now pushing us because they really want to go back and one of the thing that is definitely extremely sustainability is is very important but uh is one of the things that people have top of mind but i would say that also experiential travel is something that is really uh getting a lot of attention and people are really looking for something like that so uh it's it's uh it's definitely top of mind at least in the segment of travel where we are in and uh of course the uh you know this increase of demand is giving us a lot of uh or return of demand better to say is giving us a lot of uh optimism i mean you know for for the for the for the months to come and that's it that's that's an interesting problem sorry friedrich carry on one one anecdote i think is important because i looked at our global travel numbers yeah and we see we see already huge pickup and bookings of americans to kerabia and this is maybe the biggest booking search i have seen and we are already you know above 19 numbers in terms of bookings and and what you'll see is um and when you ask our american customers when you ask them the biggest difference between them and everywhere in the world is that when you are vaccinated you know you have rights to travel you are accepted in in other countries and you are accepted to come back and that is the confidence which has in my view made an enormous difference and this this trend is only now i would say two weeks old and i have seen you know you know the level of vaccination in in the u.s seems to be the catalyst you know which actually gives confidence to to people when i travel to let's say mexico when i travel to caribbean in general you know i'm vaccinated so i'm safe yeah and when i'm back i don't have an enormous hassle and and and that's what has actually at least in the u.s um started to make a difference yeah and this is a really interesting point to come out of the discussion both youth friedrich and robin are describing how vaccination programs in individual countries are shaping the behavior of consumers whether it's international students looking to go to the uk or americans looking to travel to the caribbean and there's a there's a broader message as well coming from all of you which is get ready for the surge everyone needs to have a plan for when this surge starts playing out this pent-up demand now we're into the last five minutes of our discussion we've talked a lot about flexibility and inevitably and and nigel hudson's reflected on this as well governments and companies and consumers all have to be flexible at the moment because of the ever-evolving nature of this pandemic we've got a short-term lockdown in france at the moment we've got surge testing going on in the south of london at the moment we've got the johnson johnson vaccine program in south africa being suspended all of these developments coming a very short notice so inevitably flexibility is going to be needed my final question to all of you is what can governments do financially to offer stability to businesses and the consumers as they navigate this ever-evolving pandemic obviously we've had furlough schemes in place in the uk and lots of other countries as we go forward what support would you like to see for the industry so it can keep building a recovery through the inevitable twists and turns of the next few months um caroline let's start with you okay so of course we have this the eu recovery plan and next generation eu which is absolutely key to keep this industry alive and kicking we have of course national schemes as well under we have this specific recovery plan which was installed as soon as last year by the french government this is for the industry and we need those um various measures of course to go on as long as possible because if a surge is sudden um it might take time uh still um to get back to the normal activity for the industry um the second issue i think is to get those vaccines and and test um free or at least as affordable as possible i know that if you look at the situation in various eu countries and the uk the situation is quite different in france vaccines and tests are for free um i know but it can be quite costly uh really in the uk for example for instance uh so i think that that's another issue where the governments might help as well so potentially covering the cost of testing potentially extending current measures further down the track nigel huddleston let's hear about the uk's plans to the uk government's plans to support a tourism and travel recovery yeah well uh before i answer that i should well it's part of the way of answering i should also say thank you to the wttc and i say this on behalf of probably all tourism ministers around the world because as a body they've provided huge amounts of information and data advice suggestions that has been hugely valuable because if we wait for government data to come in obviously that's going to be too late we're working in a world where we need information right now and actually industry bodies including wttc i speak to gloria all the time um but industry bodies overall have really proven their worth i would say over the last few months and that cooperation between the private sector and government has been really important because that real-time data flow has helped inform decision-making and one example of that in the uk is the extension of the furlough scheme is the extension of various government schemes which is needed uh you'll be aware that we've reduced the rate of vat on tourism offerings as well uh in in the uk and uh and that came about because of the data given by um by the private sector in terms of need and what the impact would be so that continuation of flow of information is really uh pivotal here and i think governments will show flexibility and agility just like the private sector is in terms of the response and i think governments around the world have shown that if there's a need for an intervention there's a willingness for government to intervene in a way that we haven't seen for a long period of time um and so i think that ongoing partnership is key but like many of the uh other panelists today i am very very optimistic about the long-term future for the global travel and tourism sector because the demographics and everything and the economic trends are absolutely in our favor uh the sector is always uh you know getting hit but then recovers with incredible speed we've gone through an incredibly difficult time with the global pandemic but i have absolute confidence of a very strong domestic and international recovery over the next few months and years because the sector is so agile and and so resilient and uh and the overall long-term trends are very positive but we all need to work together so an optimistic message from nigel huddleston let's finish with robin friedrich and uh roberto just quickly if you would the three of you what ongoing economic support do you think governments or international bodies need to be offering the sector in europe to make sure that this summer is the start of a recovery perhaps robin you could go first i think more of a public private partnerships going forward is going to be very important because the governments can't do it all on their own and the companies in the corporate industry can't do it all on their own and we've got to be clear with um ourselves this is not going to be fast and furious over the next six months uh there are a lot of countries you know i'm originally from canada uh canada we could not get vaccines so even though we got you know complained about buying more than anybody else we couldn't get any japan just started getting vaccines now so you're thinking in the g20 there are actually countries that cannot get vaccines so that's going to be an issue because those travelers aren't going to travel and the u.s if you look at the us travel yes they're going to the caribbean in mexico but those are areas that do not have vaccines either and they have a population that don't have vaccines so we've got some time to go before we go through this but i think the public private partnerships working together understanding how valuable this industry is and how many spin-offs there's a domino effect those pubs those restaurants those bars they all got affected not just from domestic lockdowns but because the tourists didn't come friedrich your thoughts on the support the financial support that you would like to see being offered to the sector yeah i think you know the the financial systems or the financial support systems public support and by the way also private support systems when you look at investor money um has been strong and aligned i mean you know we we got to follow a support we got goods about in germany uh the there was loans uh but also you know the investors have stood with the industry the issue is a little bit you know an industry without revenue is not a good industry right so so so it's it's good to have the money but it does it's not replacing revenues and and and you know it's accruing that and it's a it's you know something which is uh you know to be repaid in the future so so that's important i think governor governments i think have done a good good job i think a good job in europe to support the industry that's that's my view in general i think now what government should be in my view you know is main responsibility get vaccinations up because if the vaccination levels go up this is a solid um level of of um of of a future uh prosperous industry and also that we can live well with with with the pandemic and you know nigel i think your country you know as a world champion let's say uh together with israel to to get people everybody is looking to you um what kind of freedom you give to vaccinated brits in terms of your rights of movement and rights of going to the pubs i saw the the pictures were in the in the german tv all over the place right and uh and going shopping again i think that's important give the freedom to the people back with vaccination i think it's a good a good thing and that's the basis which which the states only can do that that the state programs can do if if they are done well thank you very much roberto i have only 60 seconds but a quick thought from you to finish on the support that you want the financial ongoing support that you would like well i think that uh i would definitely agree with uh what was just said that uh the the the public and private sector supports have been i've been definitely there and so we all being able to access the furlough schemes i mean you know whatever scheme is put in place at the national level and also in the private sector i must say that there's been a great financial support given all the big companies have been able to access you know financing refinancing huge amounts of money that have been allowing us to be idle for such a long period of time waiting to go back i think that in the short term of course we need to continue to manage the emergency and but i mean we it would be great to see that there is a better i would say communication and coordination to make sure that public and private are coming together and plan the recovery as soon as possible because this setup demand is there and it will be available to us if we do all the right things and in fact you take us right back to where we started which is the perfect place to finish with an emphasis on coordination and communication because those two themes are relevant to the other broader issues that we've talked about from offering flexibility and safety to consumers to offering them holidays that are sustainable and authentic and it's also been fascinating to hear all of you reflect on the centrality of vaccination rollouts in terms of the sector's ability to build on what it has into a more long-term recovery all five of you it's been fascinating to listen to you thank you very much indeed to caroline le boucher from a to france roberto martinoli from silversea cruises friedrich houston from the tui group nigel hudderston mp minister of tourism of the uk and robyn ingle chairman and ceo of ingle international and to all of you whether you're watching in cancun at the wttc's global summit or watching all around the world from me ross atkins uh from the bbc thank you very much indeed for watching i'm absolutely certain you'll have found it very useful bye-bye thank you

2021-05-02 04:11

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