VANCOUVER -- Under normal circumstances, Leslie Turner may have missed Vancouver’s wet winter.
“In many previous years, I’ve often gone away for the winter holiday,” she told CTV News Vancouver. “But not this year.”
Like so many people, Turner chose to stay home this year, following the advice of health officials. She welcomed new travel restrictions imposed by the federal government late last week.
“I think the travel restrictions are a great idea,” she said. “We have to protect our borders, especially from the (coronavirus) variants that are coming in.”
The new travel restrictions are in place to deal with those variants. Flights to sunny holiday destinations are now suspended until at least April 30, and tough new quarantine rules are on the way.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that everyone arriving in Canada will have to quarantine in an approved hotel for up to three days at their own expense, while they wait for COVID-19 test results.
If they test negative, they can quarantine at home. If not, they will be moved to a government facility. Trudeau said that change is set to take effect in coming weeks, and could cost each traveller more than $2,000. This is in addition to the already-mandatory pre-departure COVID-19 test.
To avoid these new rules, the travel industry says snowbirds who have already flown south are likely going to stay there.
“They have no interest in quarantining in the government facility or hotel,” said Martin Fireston, of Toronto’s Travel Secure Inc. “So they are asking for extensions on their current travel insurance.”
Layoffs have been swift across the travel industry since the new measures were announced, but there are people looking to the future.
“Some of the most loyal travellers in the industry are cruisers,” said Allison Wallace, spokesperson for Flight Centre. “There’s a lot of interest to getting on cruises towards the end of 2021 and certainly into 2022.”
CTV News spoke to a number of Vancouverites who questioned the timing of the federal government’s new travel restrictions, suggesting they’re overdue. One woman told CTV News the flight suspensions should go further, to apply to all countries with the COVID-19 variant.
“They should have done this when they first heard of the variants,” said Turner. “I do think it’s late.”
And, she said, with vaccine delivery delays, she wouldn’t be surprised if these latest regulations are extended.
“If you have an unprotected population, then they’re more vulnerable, so you must extend that,” said Turner.
