A group of 26 tour operators has pledged not to offer any non-essential trips that would occur up until 1 April in the spirit of “solidarity and active cooperation towards politics, virologists and the consumer.”
Non-essential trips have been banned until 1 March anyway, but these tour operators will delay trips for a month longer to give the vaccination campaign every chance, “so that from April 2021, holiday trips can once again be made in complete safety and confidence.”
“We hope that, with this, we are demonstrating our social responsibility and profiling the organised travel sector as a professional and reliable sector,” they said.
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At the same time, the organisations called on travellers to already book their holidays for later in the year through tour operators.
“We want to be able to offer prospects to travellers as quickly as possible and make travel dreams come true again. Because you can't get infected by dreaming, planning and booking,” they said.
In addition, the sector is asking “that a real 'relaunch plan' for the travel sector be worked out, together with us.”
Finally, they said that they "find it regrettable that the traveller, and the travel industry in this regard, are continuously stigmatised," referring to the widely-reported fact that 160,000 travellers returned from red zones, while, they argue, most of those can be ascribed to family visits or other trips the tour operators were not responsible for.
The Brussels Times
