La Palma Declaration 'paves way' for Covid testing agreements

The La Palma Declaration is the result of an initiative from the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Spanish government, which hosted a meeting in the Canary Island with representatives from more than 100 travel and tourism companies.

The Declaration’s recommendations include the adoption of tourist corridors and contact tracing agreements between cities and countries with similar epidemiological situations. The UK’s minister for sport, tourism and heritage, Nigel Huddleston, was one of the signatories.

Travel and tourism companies also committed to offering flexible bookings and payment terms, and to offer affordable or higher value products to incentivise travel.

The conference was opened by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez.

He said: “The priority is to make it possible to restart international travel, and to do so, we must use new tools available, such as more accessible and reliable diagnostic tests, so that international travel ensures safety."

WTTC president and chief executive Gloria Guevara added: “This is an historic meeting, and will be fundamental to restarting international travel through close collaboration that will result in the implementation of key measures that will be necessary to recover millions of jobs.”