The Gigantic Elephant in the Room - Is it OK to Travel, or Not?

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As a travel advisor, I have largely stayed away from publicly offering an opinion on this topic. I’m in a bit of a spot, right? On the one hand, I want to support the safe and mindful recovery of my industry and my business. On the other hand, well….we’re in the middle of a pandemic that doesn’t look like it’s getting any better.

Ask me on any given day, and you’re likely to get two different answers. Some days, I’m like, “They are begging us to stay home! Bodies are piling up! It’s totally irresponsible to travel!”

Ask me another day and I might be like, “But people have been traveling for many months now with safety protocols in place and it seems to be going OK; people are following the rules (in this segment, anyway) and there are places that need our tourism dollars!”

Welcome to being human. We are complicated and contradictory. Yet we also love black and white, right or wrong answers. But this isn’t a situation where we get to have that. And it’s uncomfortable.

So now what?

Where I’ve landed is that it’s not my job to tell you whether it’s OK to travel to the few places that are open to US travelers at this time, or even domestically. That is the job of governments to decide, and many of them have, of course, decided to shut down travel for many months now, with no immediate plans to change that. And who can honestly blame them?

But the hard cold reality is that not every country has the economic luxury of shutting down tourism for 10 months or more. They just can’t. So what choice do they have? The only other option is to put regulations and protocols in place to mandate limited capacity in hotels and resorts, testing protocols, social distancing, mask wearing, sanitation, testing and PPE for employees, and make it as safe as it can possibly be. And then invite the bravest travelers to please come and enjoy themselves. And drop some dollars.

And how is that working out?

The result is that people have been traveling in relative safety to places like Mexico and the Caribbean for several months now; domestically too. Major outbreaks have not been traced to planes and hotels and resorts. Some travelers have said they feel safer in a Mexican resort than they do here, because everyone is following and enforcing the protocols. Because they can’t afford to screw this up.

Some countries, like the Dominican Republic, are actually providing FREE insurance to tourists that will pay for medical care and accommodation for quarantine if you get sick with COVID in their country. That’s how desperate they are to welcome us back.

What IS my job here?

My job is to be a resource….to keep people informed of where they can and cannot travel, and under what circumstances, and whether they need to get tested, and what safety protocols are in place and advise them to expect to comply with them. To make sure they know this is an ever-evolving situation and these requirements can change any time. My job is now to help people navigate a new normal of travel.

And I have a request of everyone. If you’re going to travel, please follow ALL the protocols. Quarantine yourself before and after your trip. Wear your mask. Stay away from others not in your family. Don’t give the staff any grief if they want to scan your temperature or ask you to sanitize your hands on the way into a restaurant. And be gentle with friends and family who may question your decision.

And if you know someone traveling or considering it, and you think they’re nuts, please be gentle with them too. Don’t shame them. Assume they are going to do everything right. And while we all know that’s still not a guarantee, please just wish them a happy, safe, and fun trip.