Who among us does not want to go on vacation as soon as possible? Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of a sunny holiday this summer? It turns out that there is an incredibly high interest in travel in Canada, and the only element that hinders travel is not the 14-day quarantine, but the compulsory 3-day stay in a hotel after returning.
The largest Canadian travel agencies are recording enormous increases in bookings from month to month. Flight Center recorded a 20% increase in sales in April compared to March.
May is on track to become the busiest business month since the start of the pandemic, but when compared to the pre-pandemic period, sales are marginal.
In an interview with CP24, Flight Center spokeswoman Allison Wallace said: “in the last month, just because the vaccine rollout has really picked up, there’s a lot of inquiry, and people are starting to book for that fall, winter and into early 2022 period. People really seem to be thinking, “I’m going away this winter…” there’s no question that a year of not being able to travel has people feeling very much like they want something to look forward to.”
Richard Vanderlubbe, president of tripcentral.ca, said 20 % of respondents to his company’s February survey said they would go on a trip right away, even if vaccination efforts were very long and vaccine supply was limited.
With cases plummeting and vaccinations proving to be effective, Vanderlubbe said there would be many more people willing to book travel right now if Canada didn’t have the costly compulsory hotel quarantine process upon arrival from overseas.
In an interview with CP24 he said: “they are so itching to go, as soon as anything lets up on those restrictions, boom, there’ll be some demand. People can tolerate the 14 day quarantine… but it’s the hotel thing that’s really stopping it.”
It is interesting that many experts advise the government, ministers, the government and ministers listen, confirm that they hear and that they understand and… nothing is happening.
On Thursday, an expert panel that advises the federal government on COVID-19 cases said Canada should lift a mandatory three-day hotel quarantine for returning travelers.
The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents Canada’s largest airlines, welcomed the advice of the expert panel and called for a reduction of personal quarantine periods from 14 days to 7 days.
However, Canada’s Health Minister Patty Hajdu and Director of Public Health Theresa Tam say the federal government needs time to consider the panel’s report and discuss it with the provinces before making a decision. They were unable to state a period in which a decision about hotel quarantine could be made.
According to Flight Center and tripcentral.ca, the most bookings currently are to destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean for fall and winter, and to Europe in 2022.
All indications are that potential clients of travel agencies are very impulsive in making decisions, believing at the same time that most of the restrictions will be lifted in the near future.
If the hotel quarantine was lifted in the summer of 2021, travel agencies would probably be flooded by customers who would immediately like to go anywhere else abroad.
Photo credit: Flight Centre
