I know it’s hump day, and 2020 has been a shit show so far. But unfortunately, the bad news just keeps on trickling in. With the news that international travel may not be a viable option for us until 2024. TWENTY TWENTY FOUR.
Like my god, I’m so livid – and I didn’t even have any realistic travel plans on the horizon. So I really, truly feel for all you angels out there that were planning to #wanderlust in the coming months or years.
The International Air Travel Association (IATA) broke the news, and covered a few things in their announcement.
The group said that 2024 will likely be the earliest date that we’ll see international travel return to the state it was in pre-COVID; a year later than previously forecasted.
We’ve had some blows this year, and this is just the latest in a series of announcements that has be really wanting to torch 2020.
Obviously when it comes to short haul travel we’ll see a quicker recovery, and the association predicts a 2023 return for quick trips.
Of course the issue is, everything is ridiculously far from Australia (rip). And although being so isolated has probably helped us contain the wider COVID-19 spread, this is a huge negative for all us locals. Especially when you consider the state of the virus in short haul travel destinations like south-east Asia.
It’s all due to a June 2020 passenger traffic decrease, with global travel falling by 86.5% compared to this time last year. I’m honestly shaking.
What’s rather odd about it all, is that countries who have it WAY worse than we do in Oz, are already starting to open up their internal borders.
New York’s travel advisory has been extended to Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.
Individuals traveling to New York from states with high infection rates are required to quarantine for 14 days.
See the full list of states:https://t.co/SzX9s3Z6Tl
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 28, 2020
Let’s not forget that New York has over 418,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and have had over 32,000 deaths. Meanwhile in Australia we’ve had just over 15,300 confirmed cases and 167 deaths in total.
Obviously many of us would give anything to travel right now, but alas it’s just something we can do right now. And it’s probably for the best.
But if other, more infected countries, are showing signs of opening up – will it only be a matter of time until we see planes in the skies again? We know travel is massive for any economy, so let’s see what happens.
Either way it’s a massive sad face, and I’m off to walk through Giza via my Google Cardboard now.