Vac, Pack and…Go

To counter the possible early year blues, we often turn our minds to where to holiday in the half term or in the summer, so we have something to look forward to. It’s been a torrid couple of years for the tourism industry, with the Covid-19 pandemic compounding issues that emerged following Brexit. As we hopefully come to the latter stages of the pandemic this could be a revitalising period for the tourism industry.

However, thinking about where you would like to go on holiday may be influenced by whether you are vaccinated or not.  The announcement that tests are axed for vaccinated travellers returning to the UK shines a ray of light on the industry and future travel. Your vaccination status could become a key factor influencing your holiday choices and whether to go overseas or to remain in the UK. Some nations are accepting incoming unvaccinated travellers but there is likely to be the additional expense with pre-entry covid tests and documentation such as the passenger locator forms (PLF). An unvaccinated traveller would still need to take a PCR test to return to the UK.

So, the choice of travelling and holidaying overseas or domestically is very much becoming dependent upon one’s vaccination status. Whether travel is a civil liberty and our vaccination status takes away that right is another debate in itself! Nevertheless, it may become the norm that our future travelling decisions are dependent upon whether we have had the vaccination or not. I say vac, pack and go!

By Dr Crispin Dale, senior lecturer in Travel and Tourism, Wolverhampton Business School