Daily Podcast: Vaccine Equity Is Still Hurting Travel

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast discusses a new initiative by the UN World Health Organization to address vaccine inequality, new research on tourism marketing efforts during the Covid pandemic, and a new challenger in the business travel tech space.

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Episode Notes

Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Vaccine inequity remains one of the biggest barriers to global tourism’s recovery as scientists from the United Nations World Health Organization warned that the inability to properly address the issue was an enormous failure in 2021. Recently released data underscores how unevenly vaccines have been distributed worldwide, making a new vaccine equity campaign launched by the United Nations timely, writes Global Tourism Reporter Lebawit Lily Girma. The new campaign — launched by the United Nations General Assembly at the start of the year — invites people worldwide to express their support for vaccine equity on Twitter. While Girma writes it’s doubtful the campaign will succeed in moving world leaders and vaccine manufacturers to place global recovery and people before profits, the call for action does raise visibility for one of travel’s most pressing issues. A large number of nations across the globe have struggled to provide vaccines to their citizens as 92 countries were unable to vaccinate 40 percent of their population by the close of 2021. And at the current pace, 109 countries won’t meet the target of vaccinating 70 percent by September of this year, said Thomas Bollyky, the director of global health at the Council of Foreign Relations, at a recent webinar.

Next, we delve into the challenges faced by destination marketing organizations since the start of the pandemic. Skift Research’s newly released report examines how DMOs have managed to conduct business in the Covid era, writes Senior Research Analyst Varsha Arora. The Destination Marketing Outlook 2022 report explores not only Covid’s impact on DMO’s operations but also the future for such organizations — including their priorities in the new year as well as emerging trends in destination management. The report features results from a survey conducted last month of roughly 100 professionals from DMOs worldwide as well as interviews from numerous executives touching on several key facets of their operations.

We conclude today looking at the new role of a former Booking.com executive. Gillian Tans has joined the board of Spanish corporate travel agency TravelPerk, reports Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons. Tans — who had served as Booking.com’s CEO until 2019 as well as its chairwoman until last month — was hired by TravelPerk after the company had raised $115 million. Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo, TravelPerk’s chief commercial officer, said Tans, who has also made an undisclosed investment in the company, would serve as an advisor as well as assist the travel agency with managing thousands of employees in the future. Taunay-Bucalo has said that TravelPerk intends to become as big as Booking.com in years to come. The new funding will be used to support expansion in its target markets, which include the United States and Europe.