Open Letter to the policymakers and travel and tourism fraternity,
2.0
A month back I had written an open
letter. This is the second communique, regarding the steps that must be
swiftly taken, to gradually let the wheels of economic life slowly turn again.
As the latest studies in
California,
New
York and Germany
show, the virus is not as deadly as it appeared, and we have to learn to live
with it as we do live with many other diseases that are as infectious and as deadly.
These studies and the experience in Sweden
makes it
increasingly clear that lockdowns are no longer required. Countries including India
have already paid a huge price due to the lockdown and it is high time to lift the
restrictions gradually but swiftly, while adopting new processes to reduce the
transmission, through better hygiene while we are out of our homes - for work
and leisure. Otherwise, we may have to start counting more deaths for many
other reasons like hunger, suicides, lack of emergency response to other diseases,
general uprisings, rage and police excesses, not to mention the devastating
consequences in the longer-term.
Private transport vehicles
must be allowed to run without restrictions. Taxi services must also be allowed to
open up fast, with some kind of mandatory sanitation routine that can be easily
followed by cab operators. Likewise, large chartered passenger transport vehicles
can also be allowed to operate, as long as these are being run by informed citizens
who have agreed to take the risks, however little, and follow new procedures for
managing the risk.
Adherence to all these
procedures must be self-certified and not policed as a criminal issue.
Hotels, Restaurants,
tourist attractions and events should be open for business with new sanitation
practices. An additional restriction could be a cap on how many persons can be
allowed in a place, per square meter, or half the capacity, which can be gradually
increased. Public transport and aviation must also open up, to start turning the
wheels of general as well as tourism economy.
A 10 point basic framework
is proposed below, as a SOP for the tourism sector. We invite your collaboration and
comments on all points and more, in the document
here or on Facebook
here.
This journal calls upon
members of the travel tourism fraternity globally to collaborate in developing it
further, and the authorities to lift the lockdowns for the travel and
tourism sector as well, which contributes to some 10% of global incomes and
employment.
Sanjiv
Agarwal
Publisher and
Editor, Travel News
Digest,
Founder,
Fairfest Media - Organisers of TTF, OTM and
BLTM
sanjiv@fairfest.com
Framework of new processes that can be adopted by airports, passenger
terminals,
aircrafts, other transport vehicles, hotels, attractions and events and any other
tourist place where entry is controlled:
-
Temperature screening at the time of entry. If the temperature is found above
99.6° C, politely decline entry or make the person wait comfortably and
promptly make available an In-house or on-call physician to check if the pax is
suspected for coronavirus or can be allowed
-
If allowed in, the passenger must possess a sanitary kit just before entering
the terminals which is supposed to be used throughout and discarded at the time of
exiting the destination terminal, free of charge or at a reasonable cost. The kit
must include a cloth face cover or mask, a mini sanitizer
-
The passengers are given instructions to not touch the face without sanitising
or washing the hands, with sanitizers or soap respectively. This is done by way of
a printed notice, signs and broadcast on audio-visual mediums, at least with the
same rigour as mandatory flight safety
-
Additional sanitiser dispensers to be kept in every counter possible, or special
dispensing counters to be provided.
-
Availability of additional sanitation products like sanitizers, masks, hand
gloves and other PPE, e.g. protective glasses and face shields, at reasonable
-
Glass or acrylic panels that are high enough to protect in every counter staff
required to deal with customers, e.g. checkin and information
-
N95 masks and protective transparent face shields to be worn by every staff all
the time while in the terminal.
-
Cleaning and sanitisation after every use of surface that comes in contact with
customers and provision of disposable paper ribbons announcing that the surface
has been sanitised and safe for use - e.g. toilet seats, touchscreens, in-room
iron and dryer handles and other touchpoints in a hotel room. Cover every surface
possible with washable covers that are changed as a part of housekeeping routine.
Amenities not always required can be removed from the room and delivered on
-
Wherever 8 is not practical and repeated touching without sanitisation cannot be
avoided, liberal provision of paper tissues / single-use paper covers and
sanitisers, to reduce skin contact, e.g. doorknobs and handles, lifts, taps, cart
handles
-
Wherever possible, reduce the need for things repeatedly touched by different
persons and replace with one-time use or disposable things e.g. safety
instructions and menu-cards, replacing with simpler paper versions for one-time
use, smaller serving spoons for every person taking a buffet, do not recycle
plastic card
keys or use cheaper keychains for one-time use with conventional metal keys that
must be properly sanitised (keychain can announce that), to help build customer
confidence.
We invite your collaboration and comments on all points and more, in the document
here or on Facebook
here.
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