Americans are traveling again, with airports screening a pandemic high of 10 million air travelers over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but that’s only part of the U.S. economy’s recovery.
During a webinar on Wednesday, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow announced a coalition of 24 trade organizations in the travel industry has created "a blueprint" for safely reopening international travel in the U.S.
“It’s great news that our country is traveling again, but domestic travel alone can’t restore our travel economy,” he said.
International business represents 41% of the travel spending in the U.S., totaling about $700 billion before the pandemic, he said. Several economists predict it will take years for that level of spending to return.
As the health risks are decreasing, the economic cost of doing nothing to reopen international travel increases, he said. Each week the U.S. does not reopen travel with the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada represents a loss of $1.5 billion and 10,000 American jobs, he said.
“The more quickly we can bring this back, the more quickly we can put those people back to work and increase our economy,” he said.
International travel can return safely, starting with countries that have similar COVID-19 vaccination rates as the U.S., Dow said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said vaccinated people are safe to travel, and a Mayo Clinic study found only 1% of vaccinated travelers are at risk, he added.
The risk-strategy approach is not acceptable, he said, noting people who already travel know there is risk involved, but every day people are traveling safely.
The U.S. government has formed task forces to discuss the return of international travel, Dow said. The government must commit itself to a specific date for reopening international travel and then work toward that date, he said.
“We need that no later than this month,” he said.
The framework would restrict entry for travelers only from the highest-risk countries, identified by section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as those with a high prevalence of COVID-19 variants that could threaten the efficacy of the vaccines or undo efforts to end the pandemic.
Instead of blanket travel restrictions, the framework calls for risk-based entry protocols. That means assessing individual risk profiles and epidemiological trends by country.
In the short term, the framework calls for lifting entry restrictions and reopening travel between the U.S. and the U.K. given their similar vaccination rates. It also states fully vaccinated individuals from non-high-risk countries should be allowed to enter the U.S. without having to produce a negative COVID-19 test or stay in quarantine.
Lastly, the framework states the U.S. should ease entry restrictions by July 15, when the country is expected to reach widespread immunity and sustained declines in infections and hospitalizations.
Dow said the framework has been submitted to the appropriate areas of the U.S. government, and the coalition made it public because it’s important to establish a broader understanding that reopening international travel can and must happen. There have been meetings with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Commerce as well as several members of the House of Representatives and Senate.
There’s a tendency among all governments to want to be perfect, but that’s not achievable, he said. The pandemic is coming under control based on the data showing infection and hospitalization rates decreasing.
“What it’s going to take is one country or two countries to take a leadership position,” he said. “The U.S. is perfectly positioned, and what we have to do is step out. When that happens, the rest are quickly going to follow.”
There are legitimate concerns over the COVID-19 variants, chiefly the Delta variant, but that is already present in the U.S., Dow said. The vaccines available are effective against COVID-19 and the variants; and hospitalization rates, even with variants, are low.
“Travel restrictions are simply not what is helping contain the virus,” he said. “It’s all the other things we’re doing, not the travel restrictions, that are making a big difference.”