Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises’ govt chairman, has addressed tourism ministers from the G20 group of countries and senior executives representing main journey and tourism manufacturers from all areas of the world.
In his remarks Vago urged enterprise leaders to work with public authorities to embrace harmonised well being protocols with fast Covid-19 testing applied sciences at their coronary heart to speed up the sectors’ restoration.
Saudi Arabia, which assumed the G20 presidency in December, hosted the G20 tourism summit in Riyadh this week.
Looking for to foster larger collaboration between the private and non-private sectors, Saudi Arabia minister of tourism, Ahmed Al Khateeb, and the World Journey & Tourism Council (WTTC) held the digital tourism public-private sector occasion to seek out new methods to assist the restoration of Tourism.
Vago thanked all current for the chance to talk at this prestigious occasion and mentioned: “I’m right here immediately to speak about our expertise of in August being the primary main cruise line to restart operations within the Mediterranean, following the worldwide halt to cruise operations by our total trade in March as a result of pandemic.
“We had been in a position to restart because of the implementation of our complete well being and security protocol, which acquired approval from all of the related well being authorities in our markets of operation.”
Vago mentioned the protocol has 9 key pillars, together with the testing of company and crew, taking shore excursions in bubbles, HVAC air flow, contingency response and having isolation house on board.
Monitoring and tracing was additionally important, he added, together with masks, bodily distancing and Covid-19 prevalence monitoring.”
He continued: “The core aspect of the protocol is our common testing of all company and crew earlier than embarkation to create a sterile and secure bubble, which protects them all through their time with us.
“We at the moment are within the midst of our eighth crusing with a second vessel because of restart later this month with an extended itinerary, and we have now safely carried 16,000 company.
“All through, we have now been rigorous within the implementation of our protocol and have needed to deny embarkation to properly over 100 company for testing optimistic, travelling with somebody who examined optimistic, not having the right medical paperwork or for infractions of our protocol.
“Our knowledge exhibits that in a pandemic the place as much as 80% of these contaminated within the present outbreak are delicate or asymptomatic in keeping with the most recent World Well being Organisation knowledge, there might be little question that testing is the important thing.”
Vago concluded: “My message to you all taking part immediately is that because of our protocol and different comparable ones, cruise ships could possibly be thought-about presumably among the many most secure holidays anyplace on this planet, and there’s no purpose why different types of journey and vacation can’t be as secure.
“I hope that the info we have now accrued, which I’m sharing with you immediately, and the harmonisation of protocols throughout your entire transport, hospitality and tourism trade might be the way in which ahead to work with authorities around the globe as testing turns into extra out there.”
Extra Info
Check out all of the protection from the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia here.
