Monday Insights – February 7th

This Monday’s Insights feature brings you the industry headlines you may have missed from the previous week.

Headlines

According to the Guardian newspaper: Austria has lifted its “lockdown of the unvaccinated”, Switzerland is gearing up for a “turbo” reopening. Germany’s finance minister has demanded an end date for Covid curbs more countries prepare to ease pandemic controls.

Restrictions on movement in Austria may have been lifted, but the unvaccinated remain barred from eating in restaurants or shopping for non-essential items. 

The news comes as European countries begin to ease curbs as hospital admissions are not rising in line with Covid cases. 

Meanwhile, Denmark has expanded the list of vaccines accepted for travel into the country. Previously, Denmark accepted only vaccines approved for use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, in line with the new changes, the list will now include four additional vaccines – Covishield, Covaxin, Sinovac, and Sinopharm, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Double take

Two in five delegates to have dietary requirements by 2030, according to Meetings and Incentive Travel’s report of Lime Venue Portfolio’s new research findings.

The features says: Lime Venues Portfolio has deemed this trend toward meat- and dairy-free menu options as ‘Green Eating’, citing the reason behind the choice as largely driven by sustainability. “It’s our belief that many delegates who ask for vegan, vegetarian, plant-based or plant-first menus are doing so from a purely sustainable stance. We should see these as a new wave of ‘green eaters’ who are going to change the way we create menus at events,” Lime Venue Portfolio sale director, Jo Austin said.

Austin added that the rhetoric and language around vegan and vegetarian menu choices need to change:

“The world has changed and by 2030 we believe that the majority of people at an event will want a different menu. They are no longer the outliers; they are the main make-up of the delegation and need to be treated as such.”

Read the full report here.