The travel itch is boosting vacation bookings, but COVID testing remains key hurdle
BNN Bloomberg
Travel agencies are seeing a surge in bookings abroadas the spring break approaches, but a real spike will hinge on how far the federal government rolls back COVID-19 testing rules, the airline industry says.
MONTREAL -- Travel agencies are seeing a surge in bookings abroadas the spring break approaches, but a real spike will hinge on how far the federal government rolls back COVID-19 testing rules, the airline industry says.
Bookings to sun destinations via Tripcentral.ca now top 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with an uptick over the weekend as word spread of a possible wind-down of testing requirements, said president Richard Vanderlubbe.
Calls are coming in so fast he's struggling to hire enough employees to handle them, with rebookings that follow cancelled flights making for especially drawn-out customer service chats.
Allison Wallace, a spokeswoman for Flight Centre, says confidence in travel safety is building as about 80 per cent of Canadians are now double vaccinated.
While bookings for the next month remain at 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, departure numbers have shot up to more than eight times their amount from a year earlier, when Canadian airlines had grounded flights to sun destinations.
Ottawa continues to mandate pre-departure and return molecular testing, even as airlines and infectious disease specialists call for an end to travel testing and countries such as the United Kingdom scrap requirements for vaccinated passengers.
