Do we have a chance to travel in 2020? After all, when will we be able to travel abroad? Below, we gather the latest news about the return of international travel
It is still difficult to measure the impact of the pandemic on people\’s lives, as it is apparently far from over. Although other countries are beginning an optimistic reopening, some countries seems to be farther away from getting back to normal.
Tourism – the first industry to feel this loss – had a large number of cancellations in the first few months of 2020, as published by industry bodies.
Will we be able to travel this year? Should we cancel that end of the year trip? Do I need to postpone my student exchange? Will I be able to board my flight? Those are the questions we\’ve been getting for the past few weeks. Since hardly anyone organizes a last-minute trip, some itineraries were planned since last year and had to be changed urgently.
The beginning of the year brought a big surprise to the whole world. Starting at the tourism and travel industry, and, in a short period of time after that, the crisis hit other areas of the economy, affecting everyone\’s lives. Even among experts and governments around the world, it was difficult to predict the severity of a pandemic in such a connected world.
When Can We Travel?
As the pandemic advanced, showing the situation of a global crisis’ real gravity, all our plans had to be postponed. Now, seven months after the first registry of the new coronavirus, the situation still seems far from over in some countries, such as the United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
The health collapse has taken gigantic proportions in Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Brazil. The United States, ranking first in number of cases, already has almost three million confirmed cases. Around the world, there were more than ten million confirmed cases registered.
Rebooking and Trip Cancellations
Most of the first semester travel cancellations were made by tourists planning leisure trips. However, in some cases, travelers who were about to board on a trip to another country or study in a university or long-term student exchange program are also wondering what to do. They spent months saving up and even paid for the trip in advance and saw their dreams being postponed without a certain date to travel.
New Travel Package Formats
To reduce the economic impact on the tourism sector, that generates millions of jobs around the world, a new trend has recently emerged among travel agents. These are travel packages with free rescheduling, to give greater confidence to tourists who, even in times of a pandemic, want to plan a trip for the end of the year or for 2021.
Although there are several offers with attractive values, you might want to analyse how the cancellation or rescheduling policy works, to avoid future inconveniences.
Things You Need to Know After Quarantine
The lack of understanding and unsuccessful public actions of some countries impacts on foreign authorities’ credibility on the paths that should be adopted for a safe reopening. Around the world, in a global pandemic, each country has adopted different security protocols. Currently, some of them are already beginning to open up their borders to other countries with case control, such as some EEUU countries, for example.
On the other hand, some countries have opted for stricter confinement, while others have preferred to wait. Different measures have had different results, such as the case of New Zealand, which declared an emergency a state before reaching 100 confirmed cases and practically managed to mitigate the contagion in the country. Other doubts have arisen about the return of domestic travel and when we will be able to travel abroad.
Tourism professionals have already noticed that trips will return in stages, initially to closer destinations to the traveler\’s home city.
Road trips, that travellers can do with their own car, will be the first return of local tourism. After that, it will be for closer air trips and then to distant destinations, including other continents.
Is There a Chance We Can Travel This Year?
In this scenario of uncertainty, doubts are beginning to arise as the virus advances and spreads. The future of travel is still full of speculation and all of this can be considered a guessing game, as some countries have begun to experience a second wave of contagion a few weeks after reopening shops and restaurants.
Security protocols are being studied by several authorities and experts around the world, especially in the tourism sector, which is a market that has transportation between borders and different international policies in its business model. All of them need to be in common agreement and aligned in bilateral protocols.
There is definitely no absolute truth, due to the complexity of this situation. So if you hear someone categorically saying that it exists, be suspicious. As long as the crisis is not controlled in some countries, it will only be time to travel abroad if the destination country is safe. Unfortunately, at this first moment, the traveler needs to be well informed about their destination’s local situation and search for updated information on the policy that the country is adopting to receive tourists.