Ready For The Reopening

Corporate Traveller and FCM are clearly ready for the planned reopening of the U.S. to vaccinated international travellers on Nov. 8.

In a statement, Charlene Leiss, president, Flight Centre Travel Group, Americas, said: “Business travel experts, Corporate Traveller and FCM, have been eagerly awaiting Nov. 8 as America reopens its land border to fully vaccinated international travelers after more than 18 months. We embrace this development as a positive milestone for the industry and a critical building block towards the long-term recovery of corporate travel.”

Leiss observed that: “While Canada began allowing fully vaccinated travellers to enter from the U.S. on Aug. 9, the U.S. land border has remained closed to international visitors for non-essential travel, resulting in the border operating under two sets of rules. Our research shows that both businesses and consumers are ready to return to travel and having consistency on both sides of the border will have an immediate impact on demand.”

She continued: “In fact, since the announcement earlier this fall, we have witnessed a notable surge in interest towards U.S. destinations. This rise in interest echoes the streak of growth the company is witnessing in bookings elsewhere, specifically a 35% year-over-year gain from July to September 2021. We expect a similarly positive rebound in international traffic and economic revenues is in North America’s horizons as well.”

Leiss noted that: “We offer travel management solutions to a wide array of companies across the globe, ranging from small to mid-size enterprises through our Corporate Traveller brand as well as larger corporations working with us through FCM. Across our entire portfolio, we feel that this news signals a growing confidence in vaccination rates and will better equip our industry to return to business at a more accelerated pace leading into 2022.”

And she concluded: “At the same juncture, as more of us return to the skies and roadways, we encourage our fellow travelers to remain vigilant and to practice responsible tourism on their journeys.”

Go to https://www.corptraveller.com/en-ca or https://www.fcmtravel.com/en-ca for more.