New testing requirements for most travellers coming into Canada will have a devastating effect on Canada’s tourism industry at a time when they’re just starting to recover from the pandemic, critics charge.
“This is indeed another blow as the Canadian tourism sector was slowly seeing more action,” said Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. “This will of course lead to a significant decline in visitor arrivals. International visitors will not be willing to go through this.”
The Trudeau government on Tuesday said anyone coming into Canada from a country other than the U.S. will have to be tested at the airport and isolate until they get their results. That applies to all travellers, even those who are double vaccinated, said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. The new rule also applies to Canadians and permanent residents of Canada.
The on-arrival tests are in addition to the PCR-style tests that anyone has to take within 72 hours of their scheduled departure for Canada.
“It is interesting to note that travellers arriving from the USA are exempted from that measure, and I don’t understand the logic, other than to observe that Canada probably does not want to be overwhelmed by the number of testing they face with the number of people coming from the USA,” Dimanche said in an email.
“The measure will satisfy the people who are asking for travel bans (Canada also ban travellers coming from at least 10 African countries), although we know that this is based on political optics than on scientific evidence. We cannot blame the government for making efforts to protect us… but we know that testing and community tracing remain the most effective means to stop the spread of the virus without affecting the economy too much,” he said.
“The travel and tourism sector appears to be again the easy scapegoat to pick on.”
Chris Bloore, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, said it’s critical that government decisions be founded in science.
“After twenty-one months of closures, restrictions and uncertainty that have decimated the tourism and travel industry, we must ensure that we work to protect both the health of our province and also the health of our economy,” he said. “We hope international travellers will continue with their plans to visit Ontario and Canada, knowing we have some of the highest vaccine rates amongst our population and continue to follow public health protocols to ensure safety as we look to rebuild our industry.”
“TIAC and the tourism industry throughout Canada believe the health and safety of all people, including all travellers, is of paramount importance,” said Beth Potter, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. “We are actively monitoring the situation and are available to government as a resource as to how we can best support and navigate the situation on behalf of the visitor economy.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Canadian infectious diseases expert, told The Toronto Star that there’s a “big, gaping hole” in the government’s strategy, that being the exemption granted to travellers coming from the United States.
The reasons for excluding the U.S. are probably both “political and pragmatic,” Bogoch said. He also said there’s little doubt there are Omicron variant cases in the U.S. that haven’t been detected yet.
Canada on Tuesday added three new African countries to its travel ban; Egypt, Nigeria and Malawi. That brings the total of banned countries from Africa to ten.
European countries also have issued travel bans on African nations.
Critics say the bans have had a disastrous effect on economies that have suffered badly during the pandemic.
Tourism makes up only 3 per cent of South Africa’s GDP, but it accounts for more than 10 per cent of national income for Egypt, Botswana and Namibia.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the travel ban imposed on his country is both “unscientific” and “discriminatory.”
“We have come out in total rejection of these bans that have been imposed on southern Africa, and we are insisting that they be lifted,” he said.
The bans are a “grand exhibition of futility and discrimination” and should be reversed, Professor Marc Mendelson, head of the infectious diseases division at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“Not only are they pointless, but they are needlessly decimating economies, exacerbating societal distress and having a profound effect on families that are once again being parted,” he said.
Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada, said the Canadian aviation industry will move to implement the new rules.
But he said that he expects the new measures “will be adjusted as further study is carried out on the variant, and that the impact on the relaunch of the travel and tourism sector will be manageable.”
“However, the economic uncertainty facing aviation cannot be overstated,” he said in a press release. “As the variant is reviewed by public health authorities, we expect the government will move forward through science and data based decision making, tied to clear metrics.”
