Tourism body wants islands to get vaccine access

The World Tourism Organization wants the international community to ensure small island developing states have access to Covid-19 vaccinations.

With tourism a leading employer and economic pillar for many of the small states, the United Nations agency said pledges to ensure 'nobody was left behind' had to be backed up with firm actions.

It said that given the relatively small size of the populations in the small island states the cost of mass vaccinations will be minimal compared to the potential benefits of restarting tourism.

Moreover, given tourism's wide value chain and proven ability to create opportunity for all, the impact of rolling out mass vaccinations and allowing tourism to restart, will go beyond economic benefits.

The WTO's secretary-general, Zurab Pololikashvili, said by sharing vaccines with Small Island Developing States, the international community could help accelerate the restart of tourism.