Who Will Come Last in Global Travel’s Staged Recovery?
Photo Credit: The waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand Flickr / Sandeepachetan
Skift Take
Everyone wants to know when global travel will recover, but that is perhaps the wrong question. With the rise of the "travel bubble," the prospect of recovery is looking a lot more uneven. Who gets to welcome visitors first?
The travel and tourism industry desperately needs a source of hope, and in recent days, so-called "travel bubbles" seem to be it.
The idea, in the works for New Zealand and Australia, is that countries and regions that have done a good job of reducing and maintaining low coronavirus case counts — or didn't have high case counts to begin with — could open up cross-border travel with one another after opening up domestic travel. Citizens can move freely without quarantine between countries with such an agreement.
In addition to the "trans-Tasman bubble," countries including Austria, Israel, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Greece have been in talks to create a similar bloc. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia announced their bubble will launch on May 15.
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It's a logical — if logistically nightmarish — idea. And it's also inherently political. That's b
