As cities, regions and countries reopen in stages there is a new travel term that will become part of our planning process, namely referred to as a travel bubble.
A “travel bubble” is not a new form of transport to get you to a land away from home. Nor, is it a protective suit so you can social distance. A travel bubble is an agreed upon partnership between countries, like Israel with Greece and the Czech Republic with Slovakia and Croatia being developed to encourage safe travel and reignite tourism for summer travel and for the remainder of 2020 tourism.
A travel bubble, also being called “Corona corridors” will allow countries to experiment with allowing guests back into their countries knowing where they came from and providing a simpler option in closing borders should a resurgence appear in their countries, after tourists arrive. You can equate this to the metaphor of learning to walk before you can run. They don’t want to open their borders to everyone and have no idea who is bringing the virus with them.
How will this impact future travel? Well like a travel Visa that allows countries to decide who can visit them and for how long, a travel bubble will have strict guidelines and may include mandatory requirements so the countries can track tourists should they want them to leave.
Once countries feel comfortable with the guidelines and have had positive results, they will expand their bubble to include farther reaches. We are already seeing this form of restriction here in the U.S. where some states are restricting arrival of tourists from Covid-19 hot spots.
Expect the travel bubble to expand into the U.S. starting with Canada and some of our close neighbor countries before moving onto other regions. This could possibly have American’s able to wander the farther reaches of the world by the end of fall if resurgence does not occur.
As a travel advisor, I recomment that before traveling outside your state and/or the country you should verify restrictions and requirements from the areas you will be visiting on their tourism website(s).
The Expert BucketLister 