The Time Is Now: White House Must Remove Pre-departure Testing Requirement

On Tuesday afternoon, senior leaders from U.S. Travel Association and Airlines for America had a meeting at the White House where they once again stressed the need for the Biden administration to end the pre-departure testing requirement for inbound vaccinated air travelers. After the meeting, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement: 

“It is long past time for the Biden administration to remove the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated air travelers to the U.S. While nearly all other U.S. industries are operating without restrictions, the travel industry remains disproportionately harmed by this requirement, even though the science no longer supports it.

“Other countries with whom we directly compete for global travelers have removed their pre-departure testing requirements and reopened their tourism economies, putting the U.S. at a serious competitive disadvantage for export dollars. Further, since the federal government does not require negative tests for entry at our land-border ports of entry with Canada and Mexico, it no longer makes sense to keep the requirement in place for vaccinated international air travelers to the U.S. While inflation continues to soar, the administration can take an immediate step in jolting America’s recovery efforts by repealing this outdated requirement.

“The time is now for the Biden administration to eliminate the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated travelers and fully reopen our borders.”

According to a recent survey conducted for U.S. Travel of vaccinated international travelers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and India, more than half (54%) of international travelers polled said the added uncertainty of potentially having to cancel a trip due to U.S. pre-departure testing requirements would have a negative impact on their likelihood to visit the U.S.