Tag: Mark Stachiew

The past year plus has been a hard one for the world’s travel agents so it seems fitting to tip our caps to them on this year’s National Travel Advisor Day.

In 2019, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) announced that May 1 would be designated National Travel Advisor Day, sharing the date with not just May Day, but Beer Pong Day, Join Hands Day,  National Bombshells’ Day, National Chocolate Parfait Day, National Fitness Day, National Loyalty Day, National Mother Goose Day, National Scrapbook Day, Silver Star Service Banner Day  and a day honouring another underappreciated group, School Principals’ Day.

It’s easy enough to get lost in all of the other self-designated holidays, but the problem this year is that some sources are saying that the day to recognize advisors is May 6 and ASTA itself is stating it’s May 5. No matter what date you choose, these hard-working advisors have been doing their best to help the travelling public navigate the confusing web of rules and regulations that have been spawned by the pandemic.

Worse for them, they’ve been particularly hard hit by the travel slowdown as virtually no one has been going anywhere for the past year, but there is hope on the horizon as more people get vaccinated.

When the first lockdowns struck last year, many travellers who had booked their own trips discovered how difficult it was to get any kind of refunds. Those who had worked with advisors were more successful because they had somebody on their side that understood the system. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that travel advisors still have value in an era of online self-service and it will be worth your time to seek out their expertise when you start travelling again after its over.

While  the European Union’s parliament debates its vaccine passport Wednesday, Canadian travellers are clamouring for similar documentation, but it seems that they’ll have to wait until more of their fellow citizens are vaccinated.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Patty Hajdu told CBC News Tuesday that Ottawa is more focused on defeating the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic than prioritizing recreational travel.

“Our focus is making sure Canadians are safe and healthy, and our response will continue to be based on science and evidence,” said a statement from Hajdu’s office.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday that Canadians can expect some sort of vaccination certification for future travel, but gave no other details.

“As was the case pre-pandemic, certificates of vaccination are a part of international travel to certain regions and are naturally to be expected when it comes to this pandemic and the coronavirus. How we actually roll that out in alignment with partners and allies around the world, it’s something that we’re working on right now,” said Trudeau.

Canada’s partners and allies are not necessarily doing the ame thing, which is slowing down any adoption of a universal standard for vaccine documentation. Global airline industry body IATA is testing a digital travel pass while the EU has its own system. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom announced Wednesday that it will use its National Health Service phone app as its COVID-19 ‘vaccine passport‘ certificate.

The Montreal Economic Institute is calling for Canada to adopt a non-mandatory, decentralized vaccine passport.

“It’s even more important to have a vaccine passport given that it will likely be impossible for Canadians to travel outside the country without one,” said economist Miguel Ouellette, the Director of Operations and Economist at the MEI.

A new Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum found widespread support around the world for vaccine passports. On average, about three in four adults across 28 countries agree that COVID-19 vaccine passports should be required for travellers to enter their country and that they would be effective in making travel and large events safe.

About two in three say the documents should be required to access large public venues. On the other hand, only about half agree they should be required for shops, restaurants, and offices.

The survey questioned 21,000 adults between March 26 and April 9, 2021.

When Canada introduced mandatory hotel stays for arriving air passengers in February,  but not for land travellers, it quickly became obvious that people would exploit that loophole.

And that’s exactly what’s happening as media reports indicate that the taxi business has been booming at the United States-Canada border for the past several weeks. Much of it is fueled by returning snowbirds, but it’s also being exploited by other international travellers as well.

“They call from six in the morning to 12 at night,” John Arnet, general manager of 716 Limousine in Buffalo, N.Y. told Reuters. “We’ve had so many requests for border crossings that we’re turning them down.”

Even though the Canada-U.S. border has been closed to non-essential traffic for 14 months, returning Canadians have the right enter the country, but are required to isolate at home for 14 days when they do so.

With COVID numbers continuing to surge across Canada, it’s unknown whether the border taxi business will continue to boom as premiers are agitating to close the loophole.

In a joint letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week the premiers of Ontario and Quebec said that Canada should “roll out further protective actions at the Canada-U.S. land border,” which could potentially mean tougher quarantine measures for non-essential travellers.

New Brunswick has already enacted a seven-day hotel quarantine for any non-essential travellers entering the province, whether it be by land, air or sea.