Future Of Travelling In This Vaccination Era

After a year of no vacations and spending so many days at home, travelers are squirming in their seats and waiting for the right moment when they can safely and freely travel. Although there is no fixed deadline as to when you will be able to travel without any restrictions but with the rollout of various Covid-19 vaccines, there is a ray of hope. 

Both vaccine companies have 95% efficacy against many serious diseases, but this doesn’t mean the vaccine has a 95% efficacy against Covid-19, said Dr. Thomas Kenyon, chief health officer at Project Hope. The 21-year veteran working for the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told a company that everyone needs to see how far the pandemic goes and evolves, but as the cases decline, the risk will decline.

Future Of Travelling In This Vaccination Era

As travelers are spending their time daydreaming in planning elaborate trips post-vaccination and enjoying virtual trips to Italy and Aruba, the travel industry is reviving slowly. The managing communication director at Airlines for America, Katherine Estep, told a news article that US airlines transporting a record of 2.5 million passengers before the pandemic, in April, passengers were down to 4% of the actual volume, which was a minimum. According to Katherina, as of January 15, 2021, A4A airlines like United, American and Delta are down by 58%. 

Although 58% is much better as compared to 96%, the numbers are still too bleak. With the start of vaccination, there is hope. Still, it is difficult to visualize comfort and safety on a 20-hour flight to destinations like Bali or what kind of health-related documents are required if one needs to travel. 

From April 2020, air travel might have increased, but as per January 2021 A4A data, it doesn’t seem likely for the passenger volume to reach the highs of 2019 before 2023 or 2024. A report states that it is unlikely for airline business to soar high in the skies in 2021 or 2022 as there will be uncertainty in this pandemic era, economy, and vaccines.

Most medical experts tend to believe the solution to this problem is herd immunity that occurs when a certain amount of the population acquires immunity against a particular disease either through previous infection or vaccination. As per previous experiences with other vaccines, when the Covid19 vaccination will reach 70 to 80%, then the virus will no longer be able to find enough people, as Kenyon said.

After herd immunity is reached across the world, then the travel industry will be able to rebound, and people will be able to travel with ease. The main idea is to allow people to travel without any fear of contracting Covid19 disease, and the chances of contracting the virus would be reduced to nil.

There are guidelines issued to ensure that hotels and airports maintain cleaning protocols and a touchless process, and travelers will be required to take extra precautions like they have been doing.

Since a vaccination program has been going on, that doesn’t imply that airports won’t have social distancing protocols or reduced cleaning efforts. In the aviation sector, the senior analyst at OAG, John Grant, said there will be continued temperature checks and cleaning of aircraft for some time. As a chief operating officer of Melia Hotels International, Andre Philippe Gerondeau said they will follow stringent protocols and other disinfection in the hotels. We also appeal to you to follow all government protocols even after vaccination so that we can effectively fight against this virus.