世界旅行與旅遊理事會（World Travel＆Tourism Council, WTTC）在2020年3月13日發布新聞稿指出，由於新冠肺炎（COVID-19）大流行（pandemic），全球旅遊業有多達5千萬個工作處於消失的險境。
WTTC理事長葛洛麗亞·格瓦拉（Gloria Guevara）表示：WTTC的資料顯示，目前新冠肺炎疫情對旅遊業產生了嚴峻影響，全球旅遊業多達5千萬個工作崗位處於風險之中。
「當時機成熟時，WTTC和全球旅遊業民營部門將隨時準備幫助和支持政府與國家復甦。」
WTTC根據全球旅遊業民營部門的最新數據，指出2020年全球25％的旅行業務將受到不利影響，這相當於損失了三個月的全球旅行業務量，並可能導致相應的工作機會減少12％至14％。
「 新冠肺炎疫情顯然對整個行業，尤其是對受僱者以及想要旅行的人構成了重大威脅。」
「不過旅遊業具有克服這一挑戰的力量，能透過採取一切必要措施來應對新冠肺炎疫情及相關問題，從而變得愈來愈強大。」
在與其他旅遊組織進行廣泛磋商後，WTTC呼籲全球政府採取一系列措施，以確保在新冠肺炎受到控制後迅速恢復旅遊產業。
WTTC將為所有政府提供支持，特別是那些正在實施有力政策以迅速復原的政府，例如：
改善旅行便利性：儘可能取消或簡化簽證，在可行的情況下降低成本並縮短處理時間，在適當的時候接受其他簽證，並引入更有效的技術來實現無縫、安全的旅行。
消除障礙：確保消除或放寬不必要的障礙，以減輕港口和機場的財務壓力，包括暫時取消最低航班時刻要求（80/20規則）、港口停靠限制，並對某些已經受到入境限制的國家或地區給予彈性的工作簽證，尤其是在餐宿和旅遊業務。
寬鬆的財政政策：減少或免除對旅客課稅，因為課稅會增加旅行成本，例如航空客運稅、機場稅、港埠稅、旅館稅等。
實施激勵或緩解措施，以支持受疫情嚴重影響的公司。
支持旅遊目的地：準備好再次歡迎旅客時，增加預算並提供促銷、行銷和產品開發的資源。
WTTC強調強有力的公私合作夥伴關係和加強國際合作的重要性，以應付和克服在新冠肺炎疫情蔓延時，旅遊產業危機管理和恢復過程中面臨的挑戰。
WTTC warns 50 million tourism jobs could go in coronavirus outbreak
The World Travel & Tourism Council has argued up to 50 million jobs in the tourism sector are at risk due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
WTTC president, Gloria Guevara, said: “WTTC figures show the stark impact on the tourism sector of the present Covid-19 outbreak with analysis now suggesting that up to 50 million jobs are at risk in the sector globally.
“When the time is right, WTTC and the global private sector will be ready to help and support the government and countries to recover.”
Latest figures from WTTC, which represents the global tourism private sector, show that global travel could be adversely impacted by up to 25 per cent in 2020.
This is the equivalent to a loss of three months of global travel.
This could lead to a corresponding reduction in jobs of between 12 and 14 per cent.
“The Covid-19 outbreak clearly presents a significant threat to the industry as a whole, to those employed within it, and those wishing to continue travelling.
“Travel has the strength to overcome this challenge and will emerge stronger and more robust by taking all necessary measures to tackle Covid-19 and the understandable concern which surrounds it.”
Following extensive consultation with other tourism organisations, WTTC is also calling for a series of measures to be taken, to enable the swift recovery of the sector once Covid-19 is under control.
WTTC will offer its support to all governments, particularly those which are implementing strong policies for a prompt recovery such as:
Improve travel facilitation: Remove or simplify visas wherever possible, reduce the cost and improve processing times where practical, accept other visas when appropriate and introduce more efficient technologies for seamless and secure travel.
Remove barriers: Ensure that unnecessary barriers are removed or relaxed to alleviate pressure at ports and airports, including temporarily lifting of the 80-20 slot policy rule, ports assignments and implement flexible working visa for the industry in some countries with existing limitations, especially in hospitality and tour operation.
Ease fiscal policies: Reduce and remove travellers’ taxes which increases the cost of travel, e.g. air passenger duty and similar airport, port and hospitality taxes around the world.
Introduce incentives Introduce relief and incentives to support business continuity for companies which have been most negatively impacted by the virus.
Support destinations: Increase budgets and assign resources for promotion, marketing and product development purposes in destinations when they are ready to welcome visitors again.
At this time, WTTC reinforces the importance of strong public-private partnerships and greater international cooperation in order to respond and overcome the challenges faced by the sector during the management and recovery from Covid-19.
延伸閱讀：
世界衛生組織告訴你大蒜、漱口水、芝麻油是否有助於防疫（中英對照）
