The High-Level Meeting focused on the lessons learned from the impact of the pandemic on international mobility and tourism, to build resilience to face future crises.

“The progress during these past two years, alongside increased coordination among governments, have prompted the basis for a strong recovery”, said Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili. Underscoring that “vaccine equity remains a big challenge”, he stressed that “implementing what we have learned is critical for how we deal with future pandemics, as we work to consolidating how we grow back better”.

Participants recognized that the recovery of cross-border travel requires easing and lifting COVID-related travel restrictions as far as possible, while ensuring public health considerations

The progress during these past two years, alongside increased coordination among governments, have prompted the basis for a strong recovery

Chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain, Reyes Maroto, the meeting gathered health and the tourism sector representatives of over 30 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other UN agencies such as the International Organizational for Migration (IMO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The High-Level Meeting on Safe International Travel was held in support of the G20 Indonesian Presidency of 2022.  Backed by key stakeholders such as OECD, WHO, ICAO and UNWTO, participants encouraged the Indonesian chair to incorporate the main points into the relevant initiatives of the G20 process,, namely the G20 Health Working Group’s priority on Harmonizing global health standards focused on the Harmonization of COVID-19 and other Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPD) Certificate Recognition at the Point of Entry.

On the occasion, UNWTO and OECD released an impact assessment of the pandemic on tourism showcasing how the sector was among the most affected.