I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t expect this. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. this week moved France and Portugal to level four, the highest risk category on its travel health notices website page. As of Tuesday, the CDC travel site lists France and Portugal in level four, which indicates a “very high” level of COVID-19. The other three levels used by the CDC are “high,” “moderate,” and “low.” The Canadian government travel advisory site has four categories, “avoid all travel, ” “avoid non-essential travel,” “exercise a high degree of caution,” and “exercise normal Read more
Europe
Two of the most popular destinations for Canadians and Americans are putting new testing rules in place. Tourism Ireland said today that all arrivals into the Republic – whether vaccinated or not – will need a negative Covid test result from tomorrow (Dec. 3) onwards. Those travelling with an antigen test result will need to have obtained it within 48 hours of departure, and it will have to be professionally administered. No self-administered tests will be accepted. Those with a PCR test result will have a longer pre-travel window of 72 hours. Persons arriving into the state from overseas who Read more
Here we go again. Japan today (Monday) announced that it’s closing its border to international travellers due to fears of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Japan will bar entry to foreigners from midnight on Monday, and Japanese returnees from specified nations will have to quarantine in designated facilities, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. ABC News reports that the Israel Health Ministry said the country’s coronavirus Cabinet had authorized a raft of measures, including red-listing travel to 50 African countries, banning entry by foreigners and mandating quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad. Australia today said it’s delaying the Read more
As pandemic restrictions ease Canadians are packing their bags, with interest in travel insurance quotes surging 293% YOY, according to a report from RATESDOTCA. While far from pre-Covid numbers, it’s clear Canadians are once again ready to pack up and go, though the destinations they are planning to visit have changed. Interest in domestic travel climbed 330% from Q3 2019 to Q3 2021 while interest in international travel fell 14%. The report pulls data from thousands of quotes for travel insurance from Q3 2019 to Q3 2021. While the U.S. remains the top destination, interest in visiting has fallen 66% Read more
Canadians will soon have a new way to reach one of the world’s greatest cities. WestJet today announced it will add non-stop service from Calgary to London’s Heathrow Airport, starting in early spring 2022. As WestJet continues to increase global connectivity from Western Canada, the addition of non-stop service between Calgary and London-Heathrow signals confidence in the recovery of business and leisure travel between both destinations, officials said. “As the airline with the most flights from Alberta, this is an important recovery milestone as we forge new connections between Canada and one of the world’s most sought after global hubs,” Read more
