Die Politik muss ihren Anti-Tourismus-Kurs ändern

Munich, March 25, 2021 (w&p) – Michael Buller, CEO of the Association of Online Travel Agencies (VIR), has described yesterday’s announcement by the German federal government that it would consider a general travel ban to popular vacation destinations as a “premature April Fool’s joke.” “It is no longer acceptable that the tourism industry is not included in any reopening strategy and is constantly being blamed as the cause of the problem,” criticizes VIR Board Member Michael Buller. “Our industry has been in another lockdown for over five months, and the current infection figures clearly show that they stem from the unstructured private sphere—anything else makes no sense at all, and policymakers must finally stop portraying tourism as a driver of the pandemic,” demands the travel expert.

He is particularly upset that the federal government has not only failed to offer any prospects for the tourism industry, but also fails to give due recognition to the sector’s importance within the broader economic context.

With the ongoing bashing of the travel industry, politicians are clearly trying to divert attention from their own failures. The lack of vaccines and testing strategies in Germany is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Even the Robert Koch Institute’s own study on vacation travel is being ignored by politicians. “It confirmed that tourism works safely with hygiene protocols, and also that the travel industry was definitely not a driver of the pandemic last year,” Michael Buller affirms. “The fear of tourism spread by politicians is no longer substantiated at all.”

Michael Buller accuses political leaders of “a complete lack of direction.” He emphasizes that, given a lockdown that has been in place for five months and has led to a third wave, the measures must be fundamentally reevaluated. “In the business world, every company would have done this long ago, and we wouldn’t be stuck in a state of complete inaction when it comes to the tourism industry.”

The VIR Executive Board continued: “Politicians have also been presented with countless hygiene and reopening plans from tourism associations and companies, which, with stoic persistence, have not even been discussed but simply ignored,” said the association’s chairman.

His clear demand: “The federal government must finally live up to its responsibility toward the public when it comes to vaccinations and testing, and also offer the tourism industry a glimmer of hope—and stop continuing to provoke the tourism sector.”