Travel During Coronavirus Restrictions: Travel and Tourism During the Pandemic

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:    00:00:20    Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Badass Digital Nomads. I am your host Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin. And today's episode is a global Coronavirus travel update for May 17th, 2020. A lot happened this week when it comes to travel. There's a lot of states and countries and borders opening up or planning to open, but there are a lot of countries out there and so it's really confusing. So this episode is to bring you up to speed with the state of international travel right now so that you know which borders are open, which countries are open to tourism, or when other countries are expected to open for non-essential travel and when you'll be able to travel again for fun. I'm also going to give you my take on the trends to be aware of right now and also the risks for travel. And after researching this for the past 10 days or so, I have a lot of information, but I'm only picking out what I think is the most important things for you to know right now so you don't have learn a lot of superfluous information about different countries that might change in the near future.  

Kristin:    00:01:39    Anyway, so I'll have the info for you here today and I also have a link to download a PDF document with the current status of each region in the world and then also a link to a Google sheet where you can look at a list that I'll be updating of the travel restrictions by each country. So I think I have almost every country in the world there and I will link to that in this show notes, um, episode description and it is also on my YouTube channel Traveling with Kristin where you can access the links to download the lists in that video's description. So this podcast was inspired by a video I released on YouTube yesterday, which is a global coronavirus travel update. However, this podcast is even more accurate and more up to the minute because it has been a few days since I produced and edited the video that's on YouTube.  

Kristin:    00:02:42    And a lot of things have changed just in the past 48 hours and this information is good until June 15th, as long as nothing else changes <laugh>. So disclaimer it could change, but as of today, this is the most current UpToDate access for the week. Before I get into the details, another quick note to say thank you again to everyone who has been listening, supporting, reviewing and sharing the podcast. Last week was the one year anniversary of Badass Digital Nomads and I think we're on episode 56 now. So thank you again to everybody who is out there listening to Badass Digital Nomads. I am so grateful for your support. So let's get into the travel details. First up, which countries are open? Now, I can save you a lot of time here by saying that you should just assume that the majority of countries in the world, even if they are reopening domestically with restaurants and stores, um, maybe medical facilities and different places, uh, elective surgeries, things like that, at 25% capacity or 50% capacity.  

Kristin:    00:03:52    Um, even if they are completely open like some US states, that doesn't necessarily mean that their borders are open or that their airports are open. So you'll have a lot of countries. Um, one that comes to mind right now is Sri Lanka where life is kind of back or kind of getting into their new normal right now where they can go outside and they have some restrictions on different days, but there are no commercial incoming flights. So there's a lot of countries that have that same status. So even if you might see in the news that things look like people are moving around and they're going out to eat in Germany and other places, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can fly there. So just assume everything is closed. But then there are a few specific countries that are reopening for tourism purposes. So let's start with North America.  

Kristin:    00:04:46    Right now the borders are still closed between the US and Canada and the US and Mexico. But another trend that I have noticed is that even if on paper or on official government websites a country is closed or the borders are closed to non-essential travel, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't get in because I had a client relocate to Mexico this weekend by car, even though on paper the borders are closed to non-essential travel. So that is also something that can happen too. I talked to Delta on the phone and they said they're still doing direct flights from Atlanta to Amsterdam, for example, uh, Detroit to London and a lot of different flights, but they're not necessarily preventing people from boarding. You just have a risk that once you get to your destination, that country might not let you in because it's determined basically on a case by case basis if that border agent or immigration agent wants to let you in.  

Kristin:    00:05:46    So we have this weird dichotomy right now where a lot of countries are technically closed, but some people are still traveling. I have a friend who just flew to Colorado from Costa Rica and apparently it was just a trip for fun. There's no non-essential travel between the US and Costa Rica, but yet she was able to buy a flight and land in Colorado. So that's happening right now, but I don't necessarily think that it is the best idea to take those kinds of risks and travel anyway. Of course, not just do you run the risk of not being able to get into a specific country, but also of getting sick or becoming a carrier of COVID-19 and spreading it around or something like that. And then there's also the either recommendation or requirement in almost every country with foreign nationals arriving for those foreigners to go and to self quarantine for 14 days.  

Kristin:    00:06:45    So whether people adhere to that or not is another story, but that is pretty much the official recommendation for everywhere in the world. And if it is not optional, it's required, but everybody is recommending that. So right now, the only countries that I could find that are open in the Americas are Mexico, which is officially open, that has on its Cancun Airport website they're open for for tourism. Even though once you get to Mexico, a lot of things are gonna be still closed and a lot of places are still going to be in shutdown mode. So you also have that like you can go to a country, but then there might not be anything to do that you might be used to when you go on a trip once you get there because everything else is closed. So it's a bit of a strange situation right now, but really Mexico's the only country that is open with commercial flights.  

Kristin:    00:07:42    Nicaragua has kind of been in denial about their coronavirus situation. So Danielle Ortega is allegedly claiming that they don't have coronavirus there, but yet airlines have taken the step to cancel all of their commercial flights. So even though technically you could still fly there, it's like there aren't many flights going there. And then you have to ask yourself the question of do you wanna go to a place where they're not strict on managing the pandemic? So that's another thing. Everything pretty much in South America, I haven't tested it myself because I'm not going anywhere, but everything I found in my research on paper is that South America is even stricter than Central America right now. They are pretty much closed indefinitely. A lot of countries have just closed their borders and their airports and you can't get there by bus or train or boat or plane.  

Kristin:    00:08:38    And they are just enclosed until they can get this under control. A few other countries like Argentina have said that they will open by September 1st, but I think that, you know, that's still a few months away and a lot can change between now and then. We'll do Europe last because that's the most <laugh> complicated one and that's the one that's opening up first. But for the most part, I found the same in Africa as I did in South America where pretty much every country is closed to tourism. And the same in the Middle East. Most countries have their airports closed, they're closed indefinitely until further notice to non-essential travel or any travel. Um, some countries aren't even letting their citizens back in. So Belize is one that has said they won't let citizens in, but most countries are allowing their national citizens and permanent residents to come in.  

Kristin:    00:09:32    Um, but otherwise closed. So Africa closed, um, most of Eastern Europe and Russia are closed, although I heard that Belarus is open, middle East basically closed. And then Asia is basically closed as well, except South Korea. And apparently Japan is not preventing everyone from coming in, but they have like 70 countries on their do not travel list. So South Korea is the only one that sticks out. I actually forgot to check Taiwan, I don't remember what their verdict was. But in South Korea you can go there for non-essential purposes, but you do have to go into a government quarantine at a hundred dollars a night for 14 days. So it's not optional, it's required. And they will be making sure that you go into quarantine 'cause you go there straight to the facility from the airport apparently. So, um, let's see, where else do we have the South Pacific and that area?  

Kristin:    00:10:38    Most countries are closed, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand. There's a few random islands like Fiji that haven't blocked every single country's nationals from coming in. But most of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific is closed to tourism right now. Um, in a moment I'll tell you a little bit about these travel packs and alliances between countries. So Australia and New Zealand, even though their borders are closed indefinitely through the end of the year to international tourists, they are in talks to open their borders to each other and create like a clean country travel alliance or pact. And that's happening in a lot of countries throughout Europe as well. So I'll tell you, um, what you can expect there. So let's jump over into Europe, um, because this basically overlaps with my second point, which is when can you travel again? So when you can travel again depends on your country of citizenship, which passport you hold and also your destination.  

Kristin:    00:11:51    So if you have an EU passport or a Schengen Country passport, you'll probably be one of the first people who is allowed to travel again internationally, but it will probably be within Europe. If you want to go out to another country like the US or Thailand and you have a European passport, then you'll have to check with Thai authorities or US authorities to see if you can go there. But again, it might be something like my friend from Costa Rica who even though she is not allowed to go to the US for non-essential reason, she went anyway and they let her off the plane. So there's always that. But right now Europe is the most dynamic and organized region when it comes to fighting COVID and reopening for tourism. We're seeing a lot of intercountry alliances between neighboring countries. So the Baltics, for example, are closed to the rest of the world, but Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are apparently open to travel through those three Baltic states.  

Kristin:    00:13:05    The same with France, the UK and Ireland. Um, you can travel back and forth without going into quarantine. The same with Belgium and the Netherlands, which are bordering countries. And starting yesterday I believe that France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany announced that they would be having a similar pact to where you can travel between those countries without going into quarantine. Bulgaria and a few other countries are also allowing EU citizens to travel there for business reasons or for non-essential travel without going into quarantine. And by by June 15th, these countries like France, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, they might allow other countries in or even all of the EU Schengen zone without quarantining. So some of the EU non-Schengen countries might have different rules because they are not part of the Schengen zone and they're also may be bilateral travel packs between the UK and certain European countries.  

Kristin:    00:14:22    So it's just gonna kind of be on a case by case basis. Interestingly, in my research I found out that Italy never technically closed off completely even though they were the hardest hit or one of the hardest hit countries, um, in the pandemic, I found that very surprising because the whole country was basically in lockdown. I thought it was strange that their airports were still technically open even if there weren't many commercial flights because there probably wasn't much demand to go there. They did have some countries banned like China and Taiwan, so they had different flights cut off, but then they were technically still open to other countries, although I don't think they had many tourists going there, um, because there would be nothing to do and nothing to see. Um, and then also their borders were not completely closed, they were restricted so people could still get in and out and that is less strict than a lot of the countries that didn't have the same peak in cases.  

Kristin:    00:15:27    So I found that pretty interesting. Um, they're currently in their second phase of reopening and they are on track to allow tourists from around the eu. By June 15th, they are already allowing tourists from some Shang countries without quarantining. So it is a bit on a case by case basis, but I think you can expect more of that throughout the summer. And also remember that this is not binding. These countries are monitoring the situation in real time. So if borders open up or if countries set a date for when you can go visit, it doesn't mean that by the time that date arrives, that will still be the decision because if cases start to spike again or things start to spiral out of control, they're going to put back in the stay at home orders. So this is really a tentative situation and for that reason, I'm not even bothering to book travel right now.  

Kristin:    00:16:38    Um, Germany and Switzerland and Austria and a few other countries have told their citizens to visit other places domestically around the country this summer and not to fly other places or even to drive other places if it's not necessary, although people will be able to do it. And then also many countries are in talks with with other Mediterranean countries that are popular for European tourists like Italy, like Spain, like Greece, to find creative ways to open those borders to domestic tourism basically because so many of these Mediterranean countries depend on tourism for their economy. But right now the general recommendation from most Schengen countries to their citizens is not to go on holiday until at least June 15th. So we're about a month away from people in Europe being able to go on holiday for fun. Now, just because Europe's reopening domestically, it doesn't mean that people can fly in from other continents or outside of the eu.  

Kristin:    00:17:53    So we'll have to monitor that accordingly. And of course I will be giving regular updates on this through the podcast and through my channel. So when can you travel internationally? If you're from the EU and you're going other places in the eu, you can probably travel around there this summer and then of course two specific other countries that are already open like South Korea and Mexico. But if you're from the rest of the world and you wanna get into the EU or you want to go to another country that is still closed down, you might not have the opportunity to do that until 2021. So let's say that you are based in Vietnam right now, um, but you are a British citizen and you wanna go visit uh, the Philippines, you might not be able to do that. You might have to just stay there or you could come back to the eu.  

Kristin:    00:18:48    And for the Americans, the the US citizens, I believe that the US will be one of the last countries to have free travel for tourism to foreign countries. So ironically, the US has had one of the strongest passports for a really long time. Not the strongest, but I would say I think it's in the top 15 or 20 in the world. We might have the most restrictions for the longest amount of time because of the way that the US is handling the coronavirus on a state by state county, by county, city, by city basis. So my personal belief is that the ad hoc not uniform way that the US is handling the pandemic will backfire when it comes to an international perspective in a global setting. Because as other smaller countries with a more uniform approach get their situation under control, they aren't going to want to let citizens of other countries that don't have the same flat curve go to their country 'cause they're just gonna be bringing it back over.  

Kristin:    00:20:11    So European countries have identified the US as being a very risky country. So US citizens who are currently in the US and I don't know how this would apply to US citizens in other countries, but we might not be able to travel internationally really at all until who knows, 2021, 2022. It just depends on how things go. And if a vaccine comes, we might be able to go to certain islands in the Caribbean, we might be able to go to Mexico, we might be able to go to Canada depending on how that turns out. But Canada could very easily say everyone's welcome except the US because the US has higher rate of cases. Um, this could also go for any other countries that don't have their stuff together. So Ecuador or countries that have been very hard hit by the virus that don't have things under control, they might be singled out by other nations and get put on a do not travel list.  

Kristin:    00:21:13    So the US which is a country famous in recent years for doling out travel bans might get banned. So maybe that's karma, maybe that's just a coincidence. So what can you expect over the rest of 2020? This is my opinion, it's not set in stone, but this is just my opinion from traveling so much and from doing so much research on the situation. I think we're going to see, as I mentioned, a kind of global US travel ban, which has a lot of implications. I think we're going to see more country PACS or alliances. There are apparently talks between Greece and Cyprus and Israel and other countries to create these clean travel packs or alliances also between a lot of other European countries and then countries maybe in different regions, like in the South Pacific you might see Australia and New Zealand doing this. You might see certain Southeast Asian countries partnering up together and opening their borders to each other.  

Kristin:    00:22:20    So I think we're gonna see more of that through the rest of the year. We're also going to see some creative tourism board incentives and travel deals as companies and government tourism agencies get very desperate and the situation gets very urgent to save their tourism industry. We saw that reported in the past couple weeks where Sicily is offering some refunds and rebates on travel to the first people who go there. So I'm gonna do another episode all about the different types of travel discounts and incentives that are coming on board in different countries. So definitely stay tuned for that. But that's for a different episode. And then I think we'll also see obviously a lot of uniform health checks in different countries. So whether that is a covid test at the airport or taking your temperature or filling out forms, um, getting a health certification, anything that can help authorities have a level of confidence that you're not bringing the virus in, I think we're going to see more of that.  

Kristin:    00:23:35    And we'll have to see what technology has in store, how fast that can happen, if that will be happening before you depart from your, um, point of origin or if that will happen at your outgoing and your incoming airports or who knows how they'll do it. But I think it will be a bit different in every country. And then we'll have to see how that's applied to border crossings or public transportation. We'll also of course see social distancing measures continue. I also think we'll see more differentiation from official statements and what official government websites say and what happens in practicality like the US and Mexico. Our country's going to be actually enforcing on a person by person individual basis what they have on their, uh, websites and their Twitter handles. I don't know, but that is gonna be a risk that every individual takes if they want to try to, you know, fly to Indonesia, get a flight and see if they let you in or if you just wanna wait until it's for sure safe and you're allowed to go technically on paper officially.  

Kristin:    00:24:48    And then I think that there will be more domestic tourism. So once you know now in the US we have almost every state open. People will want to travel between states. People will still want to travel even if they aren't allowed to go to certain places. So I think humans are adaptable and we'll see people adapting to this new normal, even if it means they can't go as far from home. And that could be a benefit to help your country and spend money locally and see places that you've never seen before. So if you live in London, for example, maybe you could go to parts of Scotland that you've never been to or neighboring countries like the Isle of Man or Ireland or you know, just exploring places that aren't so far from home, but that you can still have a really great experience and see close, you know, nearby lands from the perspective of a foreign tourist.  

Kristin:    00:25:46    Because wherever you live in the world, your city or state or province or country is still a tourism destination for someone. And then finally, I just think we're going to see people use their human ingenuity and innovation to create new types of travel experiences. And I don't know exactly what those will be yet, but we've seen things from safaris in Africa being live streamed on YouTube for donations, um, to virtual tours of Italy and the streets of Paris. I mean, there's gonna be a lot of, of innovation that comes out of this pandemic. And the travel industry is one of the oldest, most traditional industries that has been slower to adapt compared to some other industries out there. And I've attended last year, the world travel market, one of the largest global travel conferences in the world. I went to that in London and I really saw that firsthand.  

Kristin:    00:26:49    You know, you see these travel agents and agencies and people who have been in the industry for longer than I've been alive. And so to look at the bright side and the silver lining of this pandemic, hopefully we'll see more environmentally friendly travel options and hopefully it will force this industry to innovate in a positive way and not, you know, not just wait things out until it becomes the new normal again. Um, last night I was watching a show, I'm actually visiting my parents for the first time in two months, and I was teaching my mom how to use Netflix on the Apple tv and I showed her an episode of Chef's Table. That was one of the older episodes, I think it was from 2015. And I don't know if anybody likes watching that show. I really like food shows and cooking shows and documentaries, and of course anything related to travel and food is such a big part of travel, food and wine, right?  

Kristin:    00:27:49    So I really love that show. And it also has this air of entrepreneurship because you get to learn how these different chefs pursued their craft and sometimes quit a traditional job in order to cook and start their own restaurant. And then they go on to achieve these great things like earning Michelin stars and attracting this TV show to come down to wherever they are and film a documentary about their lives. So I mean, they're winning, right? Anyway, so we're watching, um, chef's Table and it was an episode about, I think it was one of the top three restaurants in the world. And the owner, Mossimo was his name. He lived in Modena in Italy, and he was talking about how they had a natural disaster. It was a, an earthquake I think, and 360,000 blocks of Parmesan cheese were damaged because they all fell over during the earthquake.  

Kristin:    00:28:53    And that was like 40 or 50% I think of the global production that year of that Parmigiano cheese, which is I guess native to that region of Italy. And that's where most of the production was. And so for some reason, I guess maybe because he's a famous chef, it kind of fell on his shoulders to solve it because he had all the producers calling him asking like, what, what they could do because they were all gonna go out of business, all of these old family businesses, cheese making dynasties, bless them because I love me, some Parmesan cheese. Um, but it reminded me of the pandemic because it's such a critical time right now, especially for companies in the travel industry and everybody to get creative about where their revenue's coming from and how they're going to make it financially through this super challenging time.  

Kristin:    00:29:51    And so he came up with the idea of creating a new recipe that was heavy on the Parmesan cheese and it was this risotto, uh, salt and pepper risotto, right? Risotto, IPE, I don't speak Italian, I speak Spanish, sorry, <laugh>. So he distributed this, um, this recipe to all of his chef friends and they put it in the magazines and all this stuff. I think they had 40,000 restaurants around the world put this salt and pepper risotto on their menu, and they sold out of all of the stock of cheese that was damaged in like record breaking time. And it was such a great lesson to apply in this case because there was a disaster, there was a major problem. But in the instance that a problem is created, a solution is also there. So it's whether or not we see the solution in that moment, that doesn't mean there's no solution to that problem.  

Kristin:    00:31:00    And so just using some creativity and human ingenuity, he comes up with this idea to fix the problem, but the solution to the problem depended on other people. It depended on him reaching out to the community of chefs around the world and this industry, this restaurant industry coming together to help a tiny community in Italy. And I think that that is such a strong lesson of what can happen when we're in a global crisis, seeing different groups of people or even individual people. It only took this one chef with one idea, with his recipe for risotto to save so many people's livelihoods and lives and to generate this like surplus of income and then also to give people something delicious to eat <laugh> at the same time. So I think that that is the spirit that the travel industry and everyone needs to embrace right now is to think about what you can do individually to help yourself, to help your friends, to help your family members, um, and then how you can bring other people from the global community together, whether it's from your industry or from the digital nomad community, uh, whatever it is.  

Kristin:    00:32:31    We have the technology, uh, to connect with each other. We have the ability to communicate in real time anywhere in the world. And so there's just so much potential. I don't know when this earthquake happened, but I think the show was from 2014 or 2015, so it was at least five years ago, and maybe it was way before they filmed it that it happened. So whenever it was, we definitely have more technology and more resources at our disposal now, uh, for less money than they did back then. So, you know, you don't necessarily have to throw money at a problem to solve it, but this is unprecedented to where it's a global issue. But because of that, I think we'll see a lot of creativity and ingenuity and people helping each other at the same time. And so that's really cool. So that is my global travel update for the week of May 17th, 2020 to stay up to date on travel.  

Kristin:    00:33:33    Of course, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast and also on youtube.com/TravelingwithKristin because I will be doing regular videos on the state of global travel and specific countries, um, how you can go travel there, how you can save money, what you can expect, all of these things as this very fluid situation evolves. And then also to stay more up to date, you can also bookmark these following pages that I found with, uh, travel maps. The first one is SafetyWing. It's flatten the Curve Global, and they have a map of the world, almost every country that they are updating regularly with travel restrictions and quarantine conditions and other miscellaneous info about each country. Johnny FD also said that IATA, which is a travel agent company, IATA, he says that they have a map on their website. And then somebody in a Facebook group told me that Kayak has a map as well, although I haven't seen that one.  

Kristin:    00:34:43    And then I, I have also been using, um, World Nomads. So basically SafetyWing and World Nomads travel insurance companies. Of course, they're gonna be the ones that have to stay on top of all of this because that is their business model. So those are great resources to find UpToDate information about those products. And then I'll also leave links because I am an affiliate of SafetyWing and World Nomads. I've been using them for years. And so I will, um, post links to travel insurance in the show notes if you want to, um, support and get insurance at the same time. So that would be great. And also leave a review, guys, share this episode with your friends, leave a review. Let's support each other. And if you have any specific questions about travel restrictions to a different country, feel free to let me know. You can send me an email to hello@TravelingwithKristin.com. You can leave a voice message at TravelingwithKristin.com/podcast. Um, or you can leave a comment on any of my YouTube videos, uh, or in the Facebook group, Badass Digital Nomads, and we can continue the discussion there. That's our show for this week. Stay safe and see you next week on Badass Digital Nomads. Stay badass.