Global Travel & Tourism Summit Ends on an Optimistic Note

The recently concluded 9th Global Travel & Tourism Summit by the World Travel & Tourism Council held in Florianópolis, Brazil has once again reaffirmed its integral role in today's business of travel and tourism. There was a high number of delegate participation and the event endorsed the recommendations of WHO and TERN with regard to the influenza A (H1N1) epidemic. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) called for an urgent review of the WHO terminology and its classification system.
"Every effort should be made to ensure we avoid unnecessary alarm," said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, WTTC's President & CEO. "One of the main problems is that we are not getting a clear and consistent message across to reassure travellers," said Baumgarten. "There is too much information out there that is confusing to travellers, and we have little control over how the media handle the story, or over how governments react when they are scared. We need to communicate more effectively."
The panellists at a special session of the event agreed that, while the epidemic of the influenza virus A (H1N1) - commonly known as 'swine flu' - had so far been relatively mild outside Mexico, its possible return in mutated form in the northern hemisphere winter remains a serious cause for concern.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is not recommending travel restrictions, because it believes that limiting travel and imposing travel restrictions would have very little effect on stopping the spread of the virus, but would be highly disruptive to the global community.
Through its Tourism Emergency Response Network (TERN), managed by UNWTO, the worldwide travel community - comprising some 30 organisations and associations representing the public and private sectors of Travel & Tourism - is working closely with WHO and sharing views on a regular basis. This will hopefully ensure that the special situation of travellers is taken fully into account by WHO and that the industry will be able to provide the best and most accurate advice to travellers as the situation changes.
While the mantra "keep traveling" was reiterated by the Global Travel & Tourism Summit discussion panel, Geoffrey Lipman, Assistant Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), offered a note of caution - saying that any potential second wave of the H1N1 influenza virus could affect the industry a lot more. Lipman's warning was reiterated by John Walker, Chairman of Oxford Economics, which has just completed preliminary research on behalf of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) to assess the potential impact of a possible H1N1 pandemic.