Travel Bits: November 2021

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To resume travel..... or stay put for now?

As authorities in many countries started to peel back on travel restrictions, many who have had enough of being unable to travel have cheered these decisions and started travelling or planning to travel again. I am not referring to those who generally have justified needs to travel; whether this is for business, work, or to visit immediate family members, relatives and friends due to one reason or another. What I am talking about are those who resume travel for leisure's sake.

The justifications put forth by these leisure travellers are that they need a break. So what kind of "break" do they really need? I am not sure. But to throw caution to the winds and embark on leisure travel at this moment in time just to sight-see may not be exactly a good idea. Apart from having to "jostle" with those who really need to travel for limited air tickets (many airlines are still not back to full operational capacity vis-a-vis pre-pandemic levels), they may be exposing themselves needlessly to potential COVID infections. Even if this "worse case" scenario do not materialise, they are still exposing themselves to potential hassles such as missed flights due to positive COVID tests, fast and ever-changing rules on quarantine measures, differences in rules and regulations between individual countries on vaccine certifications recognition and the list goes on.

Yes, I believe the long suffering travel and hospitality industries need customers. But couldn't we wait a bit longer to visit distant lands and instead travel within our residential country or city and provide those much needed local boosts to these industries? After all, we have all waited for almost a good 2-years. What is another 6 or even 12 more months?

To be honest, I am still debating with myself over whether I should be going on my next leisure travel soon or when do I start to leisure travel again?

Wearing my favourite travel shoes again soon?
Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia (2018)


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