Together with the umbrella organization ANVR, the two trade associations for business travel in the Netherlands, CORTAS and NATM, are also urging the cabinet to come up with coherent, relevant travel advice. This not only benefits the holidaymaker, but also the business traveler who represents the international business community and contributes to the recovery of the (inter)national economy.
CORTAS (Corporate Travel Association) and NATM (Dutch Association for Travel Management) are involved in, among other things, the advocacy of the national and international traveling business community and its business travelers. Together with the business travel agents who are affiliated with the ANVR, they also notice that, as soon as travel restrictions are lifted, the business travel market shows a rapid recovery.
Despite the fact that the rules within Europe are also not uniform, the emphasis is mainly on the still discouraging (orange) travel advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for most countries outside Europe. This, while 87% of the Dutch population has now been vaccinated and many public health organizations, including the World Health Organization WHO, even advise against travel restrictions to prevent the spread.
The varying regulations per country within Europe, the discouraging travel advice for many destinations outside Europe, the -too slow- pace of 'boosting', having to fill in the most diverse forms, and then not or hardly being checked, which gives a feeling of insecurity is created. All this leads to great frustration for the travel agents advising travelers and for the traveler himself, both in the business travel market and the leisure travel market, and causes disproportionate damage to the economy. And if it is decided to introduce mobility-restricting measures, strict rules to guarantee safety, then it is also necessary to enforce these rules through strict inspections.
However, as indicated by the WHO and ECDC (the European RIVM), travel bans do not prevent the international spread of the virus, nor do they have an effective influence on the spread, but they do place a heavy burden on individuals and companies. In addition, travel restrictions could negatively impact global health efforts during a pandemic by discouraging countries from reporting and sharing epidemiological and sequencing data.
CORTAS, NATM and ANVR therefore call on the cabinet to relax the current travel restrictions where possible because this is possible and to enforce rules more strictly, so that the recovery of the economy can be started quickly. Only in this way can the business traveler travel internationally again and the business community can make an active contribution to kick-starting the global economy, according to the three parties involved.
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