The European Tourism Manifesto, a coalition of over 60 travel and tourism organisations (including EBI), released a statement expressing its support for the European Commission’s proposal for a digital green certificate. This interoperable certificate, which will provide proof of a person’s vaccination, recovery from the virus or negative test results, will allow for the safe movement of citizens, thus facilitating the restart of travel and tourism.

Through the statement, the European Tourism Manifesto calls on the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to approve the proposal and on Member States to implement it. It also calls for collaboration between the EU and other bodies like the World Health Organisation, in order to develop interoperable vaccination records at global level.

The statement comes in the context of the European Tourism Manifesto’s efforts to ensure that the travel and tourism sector recovers from the crisis. In February, it issued a series of recommendations for restarting safe travel and tourism in time for the summer period, including a harmonised EU framework for travel-related testing and the creation of an EU Task Force to restore travel and tourism. Earlier that month, it released a document with concrete investment proposals, calling for tourism to be present in national recovery plans.