Global Business Travel Association: Biden Administration Must Move with Urgency to Re-Open Borders to International Travelers

Alexandria, Virginia – The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s largest business travel association and worldwide leader in advocacy for the industry, strongly urges the U.S. government to move aggressively to re-open borders to international travelers, as the European Union is scheduled to vote this Friday on lifting travel restrictions for U.S. residents.

“As the European Union considers allowing vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans to travel into Member States – a critical step towards restoring business travel – the Biden Administration must reciprocate without delay to ensure the survival of our industry, which contributed $1.4 trillion to the world economy in 2019,” says Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA. “Despite progress in the EU, trans-Atlantic travel won’t be fully open until the U.S. reciprocates and lifts the ban on EU residents from entering the United States, and stops requiring vaccinated travelers to be COVID-tested before being allowed U.S. entry.

“ The thawing of pandemic-induced restrictions within and into the EU marks an inflection point. GBTA encourages the U.S., the EU, the U.K. Canada and Mexico to move post haste with working groups to open international travel.

GBTA latest survey of corporate travel buyers show companies are making plans to resume domestic business travel with two in five respondents (40%) say their company’s plan to resume non-essential domestic business travel has “already happened.” However with the continued restrictions on international travel, many companies 62% taking a wait-and-see approach

“The agreement at last week’s G7 between these countries to establish working groups to develop recommendations for restarting international travel was a promising first step,” adds Neufang. “But now the work must happen quickly to make these recommendations a reality. GBTA will continue to actively pursue an agreement between the U.S. and -leading governments to coordinate efforts on coordinated border crossing criteria and to open borders for business travelers who pose little risk.”

For more information and updates on GBTA’s advocacy efforts around re-opening business travel globally, click here.