Tour Operators Delay Lucrative Long-Haul Trips Yet Again on Omicron Curbs
Photo Credit: Travel restrictions in destinations such as like Australia and New Zealand (pictured) have resulted in tour operators being less likely to run long-haul trips there. Pixabay / Makalu
Skift Take
Although tour operators are wise to try to limit the risks their guests might face during trips longer than two weeks, they need to find ways to resume these profitable trips immediately because their businesses can't take the further financial hits.
When many countries eased travel restrictions last year, tour operators started ramping up their preparations to conduct trips they had been unable to run during much of the pandemic.
But the emergence of the Omicron variant has enormously complicated tour operators' efforts to resume trips that many of them shelved quickly after the start of the pandemic — long-haul trips. New travel curbs enacted in the wake of the new variant, as well as borders still yet to reopen, have delayed plans many companies had to conduct excursions longer than two weeks, heavily hitting the bottom lines of businesses hit hard during the pandemic. Long-haul trip tours tend to be the biggest moneymakers.
"We are still not operating at anywhere near full capacity and are not anticipating this to be the case until ar
