Tourism industry hopes eased travel requirements will help rebuild, boost traveller confidence

An easing of travel restrictions coming into effect at the end of month for fully vaccinated people arriving in Canada is leading to some renewed optimism in the struggling tourism and travel industry, along with hope even more changes may be on the way.

Starting Feb. 28, fully vaccinated travellers will not be required to get a PCR test to enter Canada. Instead, they can opt for a rapid antigen test, which must be authorized by the country where it’s purchased, and administered by a lab, healthcare entity or telehealth service no more than 24 hours before a flight or arrival at a land border.

While some travellers may be chosen at random to receive a PCR test, they will not be required to quarantine while waiting for results.

Federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos made the announcement Tuesday, and said the move is a response to this stage of the pandemic.

“These changes are possible, not only because we have passed the peak of Omicron, but because Canadians across the country have listened to the science and to experts, followed the public health measures, and taken steps to protect themselves, their families, and their communities,” he said, and added the new measures are transitory, and will be reassessed over the coming weeks. “It’s important to know that if the epidemiological situation continues to improve, if hospitalizations continue to diminish, and if Canadians continue to get their booster shots, further easing of travel restrictions could be considered.”

Those could include reinstating the testing exemption for short trips under 72 hours.

The owner of Paramount Travel, Yvonna Camire, said her business, which specializes in coach tours and cruises, has been impacted “to a great extent,” but she’s hopeful the eased restrictions will help people overcome remaining hesitancy to travel.

“I think it will really help people to start feeling more confident about going somewhere,” she said. “Just them knowing that when they come back, it’s not going to be as arduous as it has been.”

Camire said the expense and stress associated with current testing requirements have been a deterrent.

“If you’re travelling with a family, with children, and everyone has to pay for all these tests, it gets very expensive,” she said. “And the stress of not knowing whether or not you’re going to be testing negative to be able to come home.”

Under the incoming changes, children 12 and under who are not fully vaccinated travelling with vaccinated adults will also no longer have to self -isolate before returning to school or childcare.

Desination Vancouver CEO Royce Chwin said the changes are a step in the right direction.

“The impact should be significant given we have two of the most important seasons of the year coming up, in spring and summer,” he said. “Where we can reduce the friction for travellers, and we re-enable the movement of people, we begin to solve major problems that we have been working towards the last two years.”

Chwin said those years have included major losses for the “Metro Vancouver visitor economy,” which was just over $14 billion in 2019, and fell to between $4-$5 billion in the two subsequent years.

“Those requirements that were in place in the past were significant barriers,” he said. “People were not prepared to do that, especially if other countries didn’t have the same requirements.”

 

Canada will also be changing its travel advisory, and no longer recommend against non-essential travel outside the country.

The federal transport minister also indicated details would be coming soon regarding testing for cruise ship passengers arriving at Canadian ports in time for the spring season.

Chwin said more than 300 sailings are expected to come into Vancouver this year: a record number.

“Depending again on those requirements, does it add or reduce friction for those travellers through the cruise segment?” he said. “That’s a huge piece of our economy. It’s worth over a billion dollars annually to Vancouver, and it disappeared.”

Chwin noted eased restrictions could also help revive conference business in Vancouver.

“This is less about recovery than it is rebuilding an entire industry,” he said. “So much damage has been done...these are some of the key policy decisions that need to be made in order to enable a rebuild of our visitor economy for Vancouver.”

Camire said the timing of the announcement is good.

“Often people are thinking about their summer plans, their fall plans at this point,” she said. “We have some clients that have booked some overseas cruises for this fall, and I’m very encouraged by these restrictions being lifted and hopefully more restrictions being lifted so that they feel comfortable.”

Unvaccinated travellers will still have to test upon arrival, as well as on day 8, and quarantine for 14 days.