Canada announced compulsory testing and quarantining for travelers from around the world, except the US, further denting the tourism industry.
- Tourism industry takes yet another hit, as Canada revises its travel guidelines, in light of the Omicron variant.
- All passengers will need to show a negative PCR test upon their arrival in Canada, whether or not they are vaccinated.
- A quarter of a million passengers used to land in Vancouver before the pandemic, as compared to only 17,000 last year.
After greater than a yr of canceled plans and behind schedule trips, COVID-weary vacationers and people withinside the tourism enterprise had been thrown for yet another loop after the federal authorities applied new tour policies this week designed to maintain a lid at the unfold of the omicron coronavirus variant.
On Monday, Ottawa introduced new policies requiring incoming air vacationers from all international locations besides the USA to be screened for COVID19 on arrival, whether or not vaccinated or not. And they may additionally quarantine till their check outcomes come again negative.
Those new policies are similar to current conditions that all people coming to Canada have to take and pass a COVID check within seventy-two hours of departure.
It’s awful information for an enterprise that could scarcely come up with the money for it.
The Director of the School of Hospitality Food and Tourism Management at the University of Guelph, Statia Elliot stated that the brand new policies are one greater hit to an enterprise that has been substantially hit through the pandemic.
She says that once policymakers had been accused of being too sluggish to put into effect stricter tour and trying out protocols withinside the early days of the pandemic, they’re overcompensating through doing the other now and shifting swiftly.
A look at the numbers suggests how stark the effect of COVID-19 has been on tourism. In October of 2019, earlier than the pandemic, greater than 1 / 4 of one million humans landed in Vancouver’s airport from international locations that had been now no longer the U.S.
A yr later, withinside the depths of COVID-19, that determine shrank by greater than ninety percent, much less than 17,000. This yr, that determine had rebounded somewhat, to simply shy of 70,000 humans. And as of now, every single one of them could be a concern to the brand new testing and quarantine regime.
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