South African agents and operators are upbeat about planned changes in US travel requirements, which could be good for business, especially for families and the leisure market in general. But confirmation of the new regulations and a timeline are needed before popular land packages can be confidently marketed again.
White House officials told Reuters last week that the US government and “interagency [COVID] working groups” were busy with a plan to finally enable foreigners who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 back into the country “in a phased approach”.
Travel groups, including the American Society of Travel Agents, have lobbied for the reopening of US borders in line with global trends and taking the progress of vaccine roll-outs into account.
Although international flights from the US have resumed, including to South Africa, the Reuters article surmised that it might be “weeks, possibly months” before restrictions were lifted. Travel from South Africa, the UK and many parts of Europe, Reuters said, remained limited. To date, only citizens, residents and foreigners with special visas have been allowed to enter the US.
Reuters called the plan “the strongest signal to date” that the White House sees a path out of the current restrictions.
Safer
Ceo of the Travel Assignment Group (TAG) in South Africa, Jonathan Gerber, described the market for the US as “massive” for the consortium pre-COVID. He said there was good pent-up demand for land packages but not much for cruising.
Kay Ellison, product and contracting manager at Thompsons Holidays, said the pending US requirements were already common in Europe and she believed most travellers would probably feel safer knowing that the vaccine requirement was in place.
“Demand has been relatively low during the pandemic but there are a few people making enquiries, and some who have even managed to travel. It is well known that the US is not open to leisure travel from South Africa yet and new visas are not being issued at the moment. Prior to COVID, there was high demand for the US for the leisure market, mostly for the east coast and to Florida, for families.” Kay predicted that once the US did open up again, this would change.
Vax passes
Vaccine passports look set to become even more critical for a seamless travel experience, according to Kelly Jackson, md of The Travel Corporation (TTC) in South Africa.
According to Kelly, many venues, museums, restaurants and historic sites are asking for proof of vaccination from visitors, or near-daily PCR testing. “If clients are not vaccinated, they would be required to take multiple PCR tests to participate. That would not provide for a seamless and joyful travel experience.” She said ensuring that visitors were fully vaccinated could add to consumer confidence when travelling.
“The US was quite popular for South African travellers. We are seeing more enquiries starting to come through for travel in 2022 and beyond but, with US borders still closed and everyone aware of it, we have not seen demand for the US right now like the demand we have seen for Egypt and Europe.”
“TTC has many trip choices for travel in the US, and one trend we are picking up on is that travellers want to explore the wide-open spaces. Our US National Parks trips are a hit,” said Kelly.
