The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) issues the following statement in response to reports that the White House is developing a “new system for international travel” to be put in place when it eventually lifts the myriad inbound international travel restrictions that have been in place since early 2020:

“A plan to restart international travel is long overdue. We urge the Biden Administration to finalize this plan as quickly as possible and to otherwise make safely restarting international travel occur by opening borders an immediate priority.

"The plan should incorporate the common-sense measures we called for along with our travel industry colleagues last week, including expeditiously developing clear vaccination and testing standards, loosening entry restrictions for fully-vaccinated travelers, and aligning standards with the governments of our main outbound markets, including Canada, the EU, and the U.K. Given its enormous impact on the global economy, an expedited recovery of cross-border travel is critical.

"The travel and tourism industry has been, and continues to be, disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and will be the last sector to recovery. At the same time, financial relief provided to our sector from governments here and abroad has been uneven at best.

"The travel industry as a whole will not recover from COVID until international travel restarts in earnest. We urge the Biden Administration in the strongest possible terms to do its part to make that happen.”