The most critical question in the travel industry today is: When will the U.S. drop its COVID-19 testing requirement for air travelers coming from an international destination?
While there is still no answer to this question, recent developments point to an increasing awareness of the problems with this rule, originally imposed in 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Back in February, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) penned a letter to the White House, calling the need for pre-departure testing within 24 hours of arrival to the U.S. “the single biggest barrier to the full recovery of the international travel system on which so many of our members, and their clients, rely for their livelihoods.”
Later that month, another letter, signed by travel industry associations including the U.S. Travel Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Airlines for America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also called for the end of the pre-departure test requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international arrivals.
Congressional Coalition Says That Vaccinated Travelers Should Be Exempt From Needing a COVID-19 Test to Enter the U.S.
Now, a new bipartisan coalition of 16 congress members led by Representative Lou Correa (D-CA) is echoing many of the points from ASTA’s message in its own letter to President Biden. The group is advocating that vaccinated Americans and international travelers be exempt from the inbound testing requirement.
"While we understand the rationale behind the inbound testing order when it was put in place in January 2021, it continues to present a number of challenges to our constituents who must or desire to travel internationally for business or personal reasons or whose livelihoods depend on a fully functioning international travel system,” reads the letter. “These challenges range from uncertainty as to the availability of timely testing in the destination to the financial and psychological burdens associated with being prevented from returning home due to a positive (or false positive) test result to a general chilling effect on international travel bookings.”
These challenges range from uncertainty as to the availability of timely testing in the destination to the financial and psychological burdens associated with being prevented from returning home due to a positive (or false positive) test result to a general chilling effect on international travel bookings.
The coalition also details that the science regarding COVID-19 mitigation has evolved since the order’s inception, pointing to vaccination guidance by the CDC.
"Exempting fully vaccinated travelers, including almost 215 million Americans, from the order would be consistent with the scientific consensus that widespread vaccinations are the single most important element of the fight against COVID-19 while allowing the travel industry’s recovery to begin in earnest,” the letter reads.
Many Other Countries Have Removed the Pre-Departure Testing Requirement
The group also pointed to the fact that many countries have removed their pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated travelers, including the United Kingdom, Greece, Iceland and Sweden.
“The U.K. concluded that the cost to both passengers and airlines of the testing mandate could no longer be justified, as there was no evidence the regime protected the population from COVID-19,” reads the letter. “This decision was supported by a January 5, 2022, study by Oxera and Edge Health that concluded when a variant is already highly prevalent in the domestic environment, travel restrictions are likely to have a very limited impact on the growth and the peak of cases and hospitalizations.”
The U.K. concluded that the cost to both passengers and airlines of the testing mandate could no longer be justified, as there was no evidence the regime protected the population from COVID-19.
Eben Peck, ASTA’s executive vice president for advocacy, praised the coalition's effort.
“Making the commonsense change these legislators are calling for is widely supported by stakeholders throughout the industry and would match changes our main outbound markets have recently made, including the U.K., EU, Canada and Australia,” Peck said. “It would also supercharge the recovery of the travel agency business, as some of the more than 215 million Americans who have been putting off international travel because of this rule call their travel advisor and get ready to go.”
