THE Department of Tourism (DoT) said it will work towards harmonizing health protocols across Southeast Asia to facilitate a travel revival as the pandemic wanes.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said at the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit on Thursday that the DoT is consulting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to make travel more seamless.
“We are talking in the ASEAN at least. We start first with Southeast Asia to see how we can all unify our health protocols,” Ms. Puyat said.
The key is to make the process “Less tedious. You don’t have to answer so many things and for the traveler to just not think that it’s such a burden to travel. We want to make it as seamless as possible. We hope that we can do it first in the ASEAN and then eventually globally,” she added.
Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports International chief executive officer, said there should be a single global standard for health credentials, or a health passport.
“We got rid of tickets many years ago. Now, we can actually digitize health credential passports onto a single platform and get that adopted. There is a lot of great effort going on in pockets. But actually, how we get that out there to a global standard is still probably one of the biggest hurdles,” Mr. Griffiths said.
“The technology is there. That is not a problem at all. It’s just getting the different health authorities around the world to accept that standard. People should come to the airport and feel that (it) is part of the enjoyable part of their journey. Not an onerous set of disconnected processes that they have to go through,” he added.
Craig S. Smith, Marriott International-International Division Group president, said that the proposed global standard would be a “game changer” if implemented.
“The hardest part is convincing different governments that it doesn’t have to be theirs. It’s out there. It would be nice to be able to use your phone to just show the same (health) form everywhere you go and say that I am healthy,” Mr. Smith said.
Global Rescue Companies Chief Executive Officer Dan Richards noted that the adoption of such a single standard could face resistance.
“We have to come up with a better set of talking points and marketing if we are going to get widespread adoption. At the end of the day, the effects are so huge, you want everybody to use it. Otherwise, we end up in a situation that we have now where you have bits and pieces scattered all over the place and it becomes a nightmare,” Mr. Richards said.
On Feb. 10, the Philippines started accepting nationals who can enter the country visa-free. Since April 1, the borders were opened to nationals. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
