West Coast business and tourism/travel leaders are calling on the Trudeau government to eliminate travel and testing restrictions for people coming into Canada. Together with the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable, Vancouver-area business and Indigenous tourism leaders and industry associations, including the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Board of Trade, have come together to urge the federal government to remove unnecessary and non-science-based obstacles to international travel immediately. The Roundtable is calling on the government to remove the pre-departure rapid antigen test for fully vaccinated travellers by April 1, when Read more
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By Jim Byers Member, Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Canadian medical and business leaders are asking the Trudeau government to remove pre-departure testing entirely for fully vaccinated travellers. Speaking at an event in Calgary today, members of the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable and other experts called on Ottawa to make the change on or before April 1, when the regulations will be updated. Continued testing targeted at solely the travel sector is both unnecessary and not rooted in science, they said. “While the federal government took a step in the right direction by altering the testing regime around Read more
One week after discontinuing its curfew, the Government of Barbados is announcing a series of updates to enhance travellers’ entry process into the country. Effective Saturday, February 26, 2022, travellers to Barbados will have more options with the acceptance of Rapid Antigen tests for entry, once administered by a healthcare provider no more than one day prior to arrival in Barbados. Rapid Antigen Tests are widely available in Barbados’ primary source markets, including Canada, and results are typically returned within one hour. Rapid Antigen Tests join the list of approved tests for entry in Barbados. Also accepted are Read more
Starting today (Feb. 28), fully vaccinated travellers no longer have to take a PCR-style test to enter Canada. Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos last week announced that travellers will still be required to take a pre-arrival test before entering Canada. But the Trudeau government now will allow fully vaccinated Canadians and foreign visitors to provide results from a rapid antigen test, which can be purchased more easily than PCR or molecular-style tests, and are a fraction of the cost. The government initially said rapid tests will have to be taken with 24 hours of a scheduled departure to Canada or Read more
WestJet and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada say they welcome today’s announced changes to Canada’s travel rules. But both groups, along with the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, say tourism and the travel industry won’t recover as long as there are still pre-arrival testing laws in place. “The WestJet Group welcomes today’s announcement from the federal government outlining changes to Canada’s border measures and travel policies,” airline officials said. “The WestJet Group will continue to advocate, based on science and data, for the removal of all measures impacting fully-vaccinated air travellers.” “As a fully-vaccinated industry, we have worked with Read more
