Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi addresses the G20 meeting in Rome, Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
The G20 meeting–where the world’s biggest economies meet to make decisions–took place Tuesday, and members decided to throw their weight behind vaccination passports, as a means of boosting the global travel and tourism economy.
Taking place remotely from Rome, and headed by the current G20 president, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Bloomberg reported that tourism ministers gave their backing of the use of vaccine passports, deeming them crucial to global economic recovery, according to Italian Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia.
They are advocating the use of the EU’s Digital Green Certificate as a base to coordinate worldwide initiatives–France began trialing its version in April, where travelers will download vaccination certificates and negative Covid-19 test results into a mobile phone application. It is not yet clear how the passport process will work for visitors from third-party countries.
The G20 is made up of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., and the European Union. Spain is also invited as a permanent guest.
Prime Minister Draghi said Tuesday that Italians will have digital travel certificates by the middle of May allowing them to travel across regions, which would be well in advance of the EU’s deadline to member countries of 15 June. Italy hopes to open its borders to EU members and non-EU nationals by mid May.
The global economy has been hard hit by the lack of international travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report concluded that globally, 62 million jobs had been lost in the travel and tourism industries in 2020–as a percentage of global GDP, contributions from the sector fell from 10.4% in 2019 to just 5.5.% in 2020. The U.S. is the world’s largest travel and tourism market and the sector’s contribution to GDP in the U.S. fell by a staggering 41% in 2020.
