It does depend on the number of the waves of this terrible virus. Again and again, places which seem to have finally reduced the virus to "manageable " levels, get another surge of the disease, breaking previous records of the number of cases of virus in the population. I am hoping that by October of this year, I may be able to take a long haul flight. But I am not really sure that I will be able to do so.
I can't see travel becoming more expensive unless more hygiene safeguards are put in places like ports and airports.
it's getting already more and more "normal". but you have to be vaccinated and fully aware what extra efforts + costs (like all the necessary additional paper-stuff, for instance PCR tests) you will need, to travel from one country/continent to another. especially when you are traveling by plane only. if you are more adventurous, save money to buy or rent a RV and travel that way. At least you will have much more freedom.
We wanted to motorbike from the bottom of South America up to Vancouver. Lots of those land borders are still closed for tourist travel. Tourists trying to cross the US/Mexican border in both directions are having problems.
My main travel goal, these days, is to avoid air or train travel at all costs. The idea of sitting in a metal tube with a mask on for hours is absolutely untenable for me. I have been pretty effective at dodging all such business opportunities and will not even consider any such personal travel.
I'm busily applying for an overseas work permit and will happily sit on a plane for 4 hours with a mask if it means I can have 6 months of (self-employed) work in the tropics!
For the right opportunity, I would probably ride a roller coaster or go on an ocean cruise (both of which make me violently ill.) It is not hard, right now, to avoid business travel in favor of a Zoom meeting, so I am taking advantage of that. I did get a Covid-19 vaccine (despite the fact that I avoid most vaccines) simply because I did not want to be embarrassed if an urgent business plane trip arose. It would be like not having a passport which is untenable for a sales and marketing executive.
I actually believe that it won't be so soon, because border in some countries are still closed and as a rule, planes have to fly around those countries and this fact means that the longevity of the flight is increased. Hence, we can see that prices are high, plus, prices are high because of reduced demand. People stay at home and nobody's thinking about travelling actually. I guess that it may take up to several years until the world healthcare industry finally beat coronavirus and it turns as a usual virus which can be easily cured. Moreover, I want to note that people also should take part in this process, because lots of things depend on them.
I think it will last for a long time, perhaps forever. This virus will leave, there will be another, and so on ad infinitum. These are the realities of our world.
You are horribly wrong this time. The Omicron threat looming on the travel industry. Until we see the end of the pandemic, the travel industry may not emerge again in full swing.
Have to kind of agree with merlin here, with a slight caveat. Have just been through the omicron virus, I call it the OMG variant, or here we go again variant. Due to the high levels of vit D and regular intake of vit C and Zinc, I had a fairly mild version of this universal gift from China. This variant replicates in the throat and the bronchial tube, instead of the lungs so is not as severe as the previous versions. On tne other hand it produces a million particles of tne virus with a single cough, as opposed to 20,000 particles of the delta variant. That means that it can and probably WILL infect a majority of the populace around the world. For most of the people, if they are healthy, it would be not very dangerous but for those who have other problems such as diabetes etc it could still be very unpleasant. So may be not like the "common flu" but not really a lot worse for most people.
It feels like everyone not in NZ has had delta or omicron and because everyone I know is vaxxed and boosted they've fared well. Twitter and TikTok have plenty of posts from America HCW who are, yet again, overwhelmed. NZ has held omicron at bay, it's in our MIQ facilities and not in the community, but our exposure to it is inevitable. With <10% of the eligible population unvaxxed most of us should be ok, but we have an obesity rate of 30%, disability at 20%, an aging population, and a very, very limited number of ICU beds. Now is not the time for medical emergencies.
Yes NZ is secured more than most places due to its geographical situation. However, if I may be so bold to predict that this OMG variant, Which produces a million virus particles in a single cough, compared with 20,000 particles from a single cough in the Delta variant, is very likely to arrive in your beautiful country. On the pisitive side, if this variant which multiples in the throat and the bronchial tube and not the lungs, is likely to be quite a mild illness for most folks. I have had two doses of Phyzer but no booster as yet, OMG was still a mild illness for me, with only three days of not really feeling well and a prolonged dry chesty cough (which is still with me) but not much else. Not sure if a "booster" could have provided much more protection.