If you are planning to relocate or travel for a vacation during these times, you are most likely to come across terms such as travel bubble, air bridge and health passport that might just leave you a bit baffled. The new jargon can be confusing, especially while you are trying to manoeuvre your way through all the travel and safety precautions.
As the world continues its battle with the coronavirus, people are coming to the realisation that travel and tourism are not going to be the way it was in the past. Countries are trying to work out future plans as to how international travel and tourism will look like as they try to jumpstart their economies. This means that regular travellers like us will have to grapple with learning new terms that are likely to dominate travel regulations in the coming months.
Every country in the world is debating to launch ‘travel bubble’ agreements. The terms ‘green zones’, ‘sky bridge’, ‘air bridge’, ‘Covid-safe travel zones’, ‘travel bridges’, ‘corona corridors’ are all different labels for the same concept. A ‘travel bubble’ is a multilateral agreement between countries whereby they agree to allow both essential and non-essential travel between those two or more countries. Any travel within the bubble would be without a 14-day quarantine period at the entry points. In theory, this does not require the participating countries to be coronavirus free but to have their outbreaks under control. One of the first group of countries to implement this concept are the European nations of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Called the ‘Baltic travel bubble’, the citizens of these countries are allowed to freely travel among the countries without having to self-isolate on arrival. China and South Korea already have a travel corridor between each other with plans to include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan soon. Other countries planning to implement similar systems are Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Czech Republic, Israel, Croatia etc. While experts agree that the concept of ‘travel bubbles’ is a good idea to kickstart the tourism industry, they do emphasize transparency and consistency in regulations between the participating nations.
Another term that might become commonplace soon is ‘health passport’ or ‘immunity passport’. Floated by the European Union, this document will record the health status of an individual in order to allow free travel between countries. The passports would be subject to a common set of protocols for social distancing and would also have a tracking mechanism to permit contact tracing. Taking it a step forward, countries like Chile, want to introduce a ‘clearance passport’. This passport would declare a person who was previously infected with Covid-19, has since recovered and now poses no risk of transmission. However, “clearance passports” have been declared to be presumptuous by the World Health Organization, as there is not enough evidence to prove that people who have recovered from Covid-19 possess antibodies that would protect them from contracting a second infection.
‘Travel windows’ is another concept that has been put forth by experts. Under this system, a country or state would allow travel in windows for short periods of time. Along with social distancing and home quarantine, in theory, a ‘travel window’ will ensure that there is no overload on the healthcare system of a country. However, this would mean that ticket fares would increase substantially to compensate for the rise in demand.
With the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases in my city, I plan to relocate soon with my family to my hometown in rural Kerala for some time. My husband, my brother and my dogs will be driving down in our car. Whereas, me, my baby and my parents plan to travel by air. While I plan our travels, I find myself struggling with all these regulations and terminologies too. It is reassuring to see the airlines, the airport authorities and the government working together to provide safe passage. But it is nonetheless a daunting process since there are so many variables. As a mum, it’s in my job description to be constantly worried. I have been scouring the internet to tweak and finetune our travel strategy. It’s proving to be quite a challenge to keep track of all the red tape that we need to manoeuvre through to make this trip safely. Under these volatile conditions, travellers will need to remain informed of all the new vocabulary and will need to keep themselves updated on the changing rules and regulations. But if all this seems too confusing and tedious for you then instead outsource all of the planning to a travel consultant like DMC Leisure who go the extra mile to ensure the safety and comfort of their clientele. Did you know that DMC Leisure ensures that their travellers are always insured before travelling? Considerations like these will help make travel comfortable and safe in these turbulent times.
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