Covid-19

With the continuing acceleration of the vaccination campaigns and their first tangible effects, there is renewed optimism about a real upturn in business travel. This is what emerges from the latest survey published by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), which has been studying the feelings of travel buyers and managers since the start of the pandemic...

While health passes and digital certificates are being issued in response to the demands of the pandemic, some countries are planning to go further in digitising identity documents. This is particularly the case in Germany, which launched its "Digital identities" project in December 2020, on the initiative of six federal authorities...

The digital COVID certificate designed to enable free movement of travellers within the European Union is now very close to becoming a reality, with its launch expected at the beginning of July. Following the adoption by a large majority of the outlines of this health pass by the European Parliament last April, its implementation is now...

Austria dreams of reviving its tradition of welcoming visitors from all over the world. It seems that this dream is now a matter of weeks, if not days. In 2019, the benchmark for a 'normal' tourist year, the tourism and travel sector contributed 11.8 % to Austrian GDP and accounted for 12.5 % of employment....

"Here we are!" With a tweet, Emmanuel Macron kicked off the second stage of deconfinement symbolised by the reopening of the terraces, with the President of the Republic taking to the stage seated at a café table to materialise the moment. The social network is teeming with examples of personalities who, despite...

A few drops of saliva, a result in less than a minute: travellers tired of nasopharyngeal tests and the long wait for results could find a less daunting solution to prove that they are negative for Covid-19. British Airways is currently evaluating a technological alternative designed by Canary Global, the Pelican Covid-19 test...

The rapid spread of the Indian variant of Covid-19 in South-East Asia is turning into a third wave of the pandemic. In one week, according to official figures, the number of active cases has risen by 31% in Malaysia, and the number of deaths by 51%. In Singapore, however, the pandemic remains under control. The...

There's a wind of panic blowing through Asia, and it's coming from India. The Covid-19 pandemic in the world's second most populous country seems to be out of control. In just one month, the number of Covid-positive cases has almost doubled. As of yesterday, India had 21.07...

While we wait for collective immunity to the Covid-19 virus, vaccination campaigns are being stepped up worldwide. However, there are major variations from one continent to another. These are the findings of an investigation by the New York Times. In partnership with the University of Oxford, the American daily has created a Covid barometer, which analyses the state of...

The European aviation, travel and tourism industries* have issued a statement welcoming the European Parliament's vote on the proposal for an EU regulation on a digital green certificate. The vote paves the way for technical negotiations between the Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission....

The deconfinement process is taking shape in France. A week after Jean Castex's speech, which set 3 May as the start of the relaxation, Emmanuel Macron took up the issue in the regional press. The President confirmed this starting point, which will mark the end of travel restrictions. He also set out the stages...

A few days ago, Amadeus published a study highlighting the expectations of the business travel community with regard to the health pass for the resumption of business travel. However, these digital certificates are not the only measures attracting the attention of business travellers, according to the new...

In a video interview at the Routes Reconnected conference, Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Swiss Airlines, outlined the shape of the recovery in air travel. "There's no doubt that we're seeing dramatic changes in business travel at the moment. I therefore expect a reduced volume of...

As part of the general measures to ease semi-confinement in France, French Polynesia is returning to a little more normality. Until April 30, only travellers from mainland France may enter Polynesia for a compelling reason. This includes travel for health, professional or family reasons, or to return home. Polynesia has...

Jean Castex spoke on Thursday 22 April to give an update on the health situation in France and the resulting changes to the regulatory framework. In particular, the Prime Minister confirmed that travel within France could resume on 3 May: "From 3 May, we will be able to lift the restrictions on travel within France....

More than 100 infections per 100,000 inhabitants on three consecutive days. This is the new benchmark on which the German law on protection against infection is now based. Adopted by the Federal Parliament on Wednesday 21 April, the law effectively changes the rules. Despite stricter confinement and restriction measures...

The evaporation of international air traffic to the African continent over several months will leave its mark. Overall, even with the recovery in the second half of 2020, the region is unlikely to have attracted more than 45 million passengers over the year, compared with 155 million in 2019. Worse still, the return to this...

How have your West African hotels coped with the Covid 19 crisis? Daniel Karbownik - From April 2020, we were initially affected because the European, American and Asian outbound markets were closing. A lot of hotels were closed and there was absolutely no traffic. But from July onwards, we...

South Africa, the continent's leading economic power, had barely recovered from a first deadly wave of the pandemic last year when it was faced with a new acceleration in infections, accompanied by an unfortunate coincidence: the 501Y.V2 variant of Covid 19, discovered by local scientists, was immediately dubbed the "South African variant"...

The Maldives, a tourist paradise with a string of islets dotted around the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, is dreaming of just such an idea. Before the pandemic, this paradise managed to attract 1.7 million international visitors, a figure that rose by 14.5% between 2018 and 2019. At the time, France was one of the top ten markets...