00:00Well, Anita Menderata is a tourism advisor to the UN, author of The Call to Leadership,
00:05which looks at how decision makers in the travel industry deal with crisis.
00:11Hello, Anita. Lovely to chat to you again.
00:13Of course, this is another crisis.
00:15We're hearing Ursula von der Leyen now acknowledging it.
00:18Do you think it's just a matter of time before they actually suspend this entry-exit system for summer?
00:25Sally, thank you very much for having me back.
00:27And the call for suspension has already happened, importantly, not only from the airlines,
00:32but also from the Airports Council International and Airlines for Europe as an organization.
00:38Because really importantly, and as you've said, this is a peak travel time.
00:4330 to 40 percent of major European destinations get their tourists at exactly this time.
00:50EES, which has a role to play, travelers, governments appreciate its value,
00:54but we're recognizing the finished date and the completion date for implementation was 100 days ago.
01:00It's simply not functioning.
01:02So while we have this surge of travel and surge of emotion of people desperate to go on holiday,
01:08let's just turn the systems off, go back to manual checks,
01:12and then we can, in the fall and in the winter, put the systems back on.
01:15And so this is where, from a leadership perspective and crisis leadership,
01:19this is where the leaders are recognizing this is not only about operations.
01:23This is about the emotional investment that travelers make into their holidays.
01:28We need to put that as a priority and hold back on operations for the moment.
01:33Yeah, it's a good point that you're making.
01:34There is a very strong emotional feeling there, passengers getting very angry
01:39and understandably upset if they can't get to their much-longed-for holiday destination.
01:45Do you think that this will change tourism behavior if it's not managed very quickly?
01:50In many ways, yes, because I think importantly, when we look at the airports
01:54and when we look at the airport lines, it's not only discomfort,
01:57it's disappointment and it's dangerous.
02:00Because add on top of the European EES delays,
02:03add on top of that Mother Nature putting in place heat waves.
02:07So when you have people standing for one to four hours in immigration lines
02:11without water bottles and with high emotion,
02:14that's just physically dangerous and emotionally volatile.
02:18So people will rethink where they're traveling,
02:21but more importantly, it's also when they're traveling.
02:24Because these especially iconic destinations, their economies need tourism.
02:29Jobs need tourism.
02:31So it's about stretching it from saying,
02:33do we go to Paris, Madrid, Berlin, other places in July and August?
02:39Rather go in May, rather go in September,
02:42when temperatures are cooler and when there are less travelers.
02:45So there's also eliminating the discomfort of overcrowding,
02:48which we know is a major problem now in primarily iconic destinations.
02:53Yeah, it's a good point you're making about these heat waves
02:55also having a potential impact on tourism behavior.
02:59Thank you so much, Anita Menderata,
03:01tourism advisor to the UN and author as well.
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