A published report says senior U.S. politicians last week urged President Joe Biden to keep the border open to fully vaccinated Canadians. The joint, bipartisan letter to Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has sparked speculation about whether Canada or the U.S. have plans to shutter the border again, said the Niagara Independent. “Maintaining an open border to vaccinated travelers has been essential to the functioning economy of New York State and to the wellbeing of New York families,” read the letter, penned by U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Western New York congressmen Brian Higgins and Chris Jacobs. Read more
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The best-known COVID-19 expert in the U.S. says the American government should “seriously” consider requiring domestic travellers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “There’s requirements that you might want to get if you want to get into college, or you want to go to a university, or you want to work in certain places,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on MSNBC on Monday. “When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated. If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.” CNBC Read more
Several ocean cruise ships were turned away from ports of call or were prohibited from letting passengers disembark in the Americas this week because of Covid-19 cases aboard, CNN reports. That’s nothing like the massive disruption when the pandemic hit in March of last year, but it comes at a time when the cruise industry was just getting back in the swing of things. An Expedia Group study released in late November found that there had been more than a 20% month on month increase in demand in Canadian cruise searches for travel in the fourth quarter of 2021 and Read more
It became a little tougher today for Canadians to travel. Just after midnight Eastern Time today, December 21, new rules brought in by the government of Canada to combat the Omicron variant took effect. Under the new regulations, any Canadian who leaves the country must submit a negative PCR test before they’re allowed to return, even if they’re only gone for a few hours. The government was allowing Canadians who left the country for less than 72 hours to get tested before they left on their trip. But the ruling Liberals passed new legislation last week that revoked that policy. Read more
A survey of global travel stakeholders by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) finds that eight in ten respondents are concerned or very concerned about the revenue impact the Omicron variant will have on companies in the business travel sector, while just over one-third say their bookings have decreased. Earlier this month, the GBTA, the world’s largest business travel association, surveyed its membership of global travel buyers, suppliers, and other industry stakeholders to gauge current sentiment around the COVID-19 omicron variant and any early effects on the business travel industry. Here are some of the highlights from the recent GBTA Read more
