This was published 2 years ago
COVID-19 and international travel: The pandemic seems to be over for travellers
By Ben Groundwater
Despite a few minor inconveniences, it's starting to feel like travel is back to pre-COVID tims.Credit: iStock
I remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Singapore, in March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to take hold around the world. I'd just escaped from Italy with my family, made it halfway home, and we were in the process of figuring out how to take the final leg. Plans to visit Thailand had been cancelled. We were trying not to panic.
There we were in that hotel lobby, sitting with all of our bags, discussing plans, and I could hear two businessmen next to us chatting to each other. They were talking, as everyone was at that point, about the COVID-19 pandemic.
I glanced at my partner, rolled my eyes. "You know," I said, "I'm really looking forward to overhearing a conversation that's not about the coronavirus."
It's more than two years later now, and I'm still not sure if that's actually happened. Little did I appreciate, at that point, what an Earth-shifting event was taking place, and how dramatically altered our lives would be for the foreseeable future. Everyone was talking about COVID-19 then, and to an extent we're still talking about it now, even as Ukraine dominates the headlines, and natural disasters sweep Australia.
COVID-19. COVID-19. It's all we talk about, all we think about, particularly if you love to travel, particularly if you plan to get out soon and see the world.
And yet now, finally, I get the feeling that we are coming out the other side. I'm almost reluctant to write this, because I'm sure as soon as I do some other nasty variant will emerge and begin further destroying the world as we know it, but… is the pandemic, for travellers at least, beginning to come to an end?
There are signs of it all around the world. Consider where we were, say, just six months ago, and where we are today, and it's quite incredible the freedom we now enjoy.
To begin with, Australians can leave the country without needing permission, something we always used to take for granted, and then suddenly realised was not an inalienable right at all. But now, we can come and go essentially as we please, with a small RAT to get back home. Foreign tourists and other visitors can also come to Australia as they once could.
State borders, too, are open, and are likely to stay that way. You still need to test to get into WA, but apart from that it's open slather, and with COVID-19 having now spread to every corner of the country, it seems highly unlikely borders will close again. For those same reasons, it's a stretch to see our international border regulations being significantly tightened again.
And then you look around the world, and things are just as rosy. Across the globe, COVID-19-related restrictions, travel and otherwise, are easing, though of course in different ways depending on where you look.
Even those countries who have historically been most wary are taking steps. New Zealand has just brought forward its reopening to the world. South Korea will begin to accept international tourists from next month. Vietnam has already thrown open its previously slammed doors. Chile and Argentina are the same. Indonesia recently ditched its quarantine requirements.
Look further afield and you find even fewer regulations and requirements. The UK has now ditched all vaccination, testing and quarantine requirements for arrivals from anywhere in the world. There are no COVID-19-related rules to follow on the ground, either. You don't even have to wear a mask on some flights.
Denmark, similarly, has no rules for passengers arriving from within the EU (basically the only way to get there anyway), and no regulations on the ground. Norway has no rules or regulations. Ireland is wide open. Hungary is too. Mexico is open. Switzerland has few rules.
These countries appear to be less outliers and more leaders, showing the way for the rest of the world, which is moving in its entirety in that same direction, though at varying pace.
So you have to ask: is the COVID-19 pandemic, as far as travel is concerned at least, almost over? Is the virus hitting endemic phase and the world moving on? Are we approaching a "new normal" that looks very much like the old normal?
Looking around, you would have to say yes. There are still issues for Australian travellers, of course. The QR codes on our international vaccination certificates still can't be read in a heap of countries, which can be anything from a small annoyance in some places to a massive hassle in others. We still have to take a RAT before coming home to Australia, which places travellers in danger of being trapped in another country.
And there is still, of course, the very real risk of contracting COVID-19 while travelling and requiring medical care (plus a swathe of other associated hassles).
But the global trajectory is a positive one. Things are getting better. Travel is becoming easier and more reliable as the world begins to shed its regulations and restrictions.
I don't want to call this too early, or jinx things entirely, but still, I'm going to say it: pretty soon you might be able to overhear a conversation that's not about COVID-19.
Do you think the end is in sight for COVID-19 restrictions for travellers? Is the world moving towards the new normal? Or is it too soon to predict the end of the pandemic?
Email: b.groundwater@traveller.com.au
Instagram: Instagram.com/bengroundwater
Twitter: twitter.com/bengroundwater
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