World Travel & Tourism Council release guidelines for safe return to work

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), signed a memorandum of collaboration today, to help ensure the protection of both employees in Travel & Tourism and travellers. 

As part of the collaboration, IOSH and WTTC, which represents the Travel & Tourism private sector globally, have released a number of guides to enable businesses within the Travel & Tourism sector to return to work safely.

These include:
·         Returning safely guide
·         Risk assessments guide
·         Covid-19 ergonomic factsheet
·         Maintaining good leadership principles factsheet
·         Mental health and wellbeing – working from home factsheet
·         Remote workers guide.

 As organisations within the Travel & Tourism sector seek to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, rebuilding consumer confidence through safety and health protocols in all tourism operations has emerged as one of the biggest priorities for WTTC, and the wider sector.

As the chartered body for occupational safety and health professionals and leading developer of safety and health training courses, IOSH is ideally placed to provide support in preventing accidents and ill health in the sector.

This collaboration aims to help the Travel & Tourism sector recover from the pandemic by leveraging IOSH’s experience and practical solutions to help the organisations and businesses best look after the safety and health of their workforce.

 The memorandum was signed by IOSH Chief Executive, Bev Messinger and WTTC President & CEO, Gloria Guevara on Tuesday 29 September. It was followed by a webinar on Wednesday 30 September, where Bev addressed members of WTTC.

Bev said: “The purpose of this collaboration is to support the WTTC and the businesses in the Travel & Tourism sector at this difficult time with our expertise and resources to keep your employees safe and healthy.

 “Restarting operations isn’t something which can happen overnight. There needs to be a planned, risk-controlled approach – based on strong leadership, worker involvement and sound health and safety advice – to ensure safe people, workplaces, systems and equipment. IOSH’s Returning safely campaign has offered fresh advice to help people carry out Covid risk assessments and update the ways they work to ensure everyone stays safe and societies and economies recover.”

Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC said: “WTTC is delighted to partner with IOSH on such an important set of guidelines. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way we work, and we hope that at the right time companies begin to return to offices, with the right protocols and measures in place to protect and safeguard their staff.. Consumer and employee confidence is a key component in the recovery of the Travel & Tourism sector, and we believe that these guidelines will play a significant role in that process.”