Despite intense pressure from the travel industry and warnings of "dire economic consequences," the Biden administration has no immediate plans to lift any international travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a White House official.
"We have made tremendous progress domestically in our vaccination efforts, as have many of these other countries, but we want to ensure that we move deliberately and are in a position to sustainably reopen international travel when it is safe to do so," an unidentified White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The statement comes one month after the administration launched interagency working groups with the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico to examine how to best lift restrictions and ultimately resume free-flowing travel. "While these groups have met a number of times, there are further discussions to be had before we can announce any next steps on travel reopening with any country," the official said.
Earlier this week, a coalition of at least two dozen travel industry associations came together to develop a blueprint for reopening the U.S. to international travel that identifies policy principles to quickly welcome foreign tourists back to the U.S. without sacrificing health and safety.
"The travel industry agrees that being guided by the science is absolutely the correct approach, and the science has been telling us for some time that it's possible to begin to safely reopen international travel," U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement.
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