The Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the European umbrella association of the hotel industry Hotrec and the travel agencies ECTAA demand that a Europe-wide overall strategy for the restart of the travel and tourism industry be coordinated and implemented as soon as possible. This should largely avoid quarantine.

"For a successful restart of the travel and tourism industry, it is imperative to have an efficient test and vaccination strategy coordinated across Europe in order to avoid quarantine measures and travel restrictions," says Gregor Kadanka, Chairman of the Association of Travel Agencies of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) and initiator of the “Restart” consortium, in agreement with the players in the domestic travel industry - travel agencies, hotels, air traffic and booking system providers. “Accelerated vaccination coverage, uniform requirements for the detection of tests and vaccinations as well as the promotion of fast antigen tests are needed across Europe so that the constantly changing travel restrictions and quarantine measures can be avoided as far as possible and landing bans in particular are a thing of the past. If we now manage to develop a long-term strategy at EU level, then this will protect us from such horrific effects as we are now experiencing in any future crises ”.

The WKÖ-Fachverband Hotellerie is also of the opinion that Europe-wide coordination and coordination is the basis for a successful summer season in 2021. But there are still some tasks to be done within Austria: “Among other things, we need sufficient lead time to reopen our operations and we need a good reopening strategy with targeted and proportionate measures. The planned guest tests, for example, have to be practical and easy to implement, we made specific proposals to the politicians weeks ago, "says Susanne Kraus-Winkler, chairwoman of the WKÖ Hotel Association, who also calls for long-term aid and support measures for the ailing industry .