Mexico, Brazil, Peru. In recent days a number of travel advisories have been issued and travel disrupted for Canadians abroad and Canadian travel operators scrambling as volatile situations on the ground evolve.
And it’s not just new travel advisories. Travel choices are also being affected by issues like the continued Ukraine invasion affecting travel to Eastern Europe and a new chill in relations with China following the re-imposition of COVID restrictions on arrivals from China.
This spike in social and political unrest and international tensions is all taking place as the travel industry is still trying to regain lost ground from the pandemic and smooth out residual operational issues.
The result has been a double - even triple - whammy to travel.
An article in the Globe & Mail describes “a shrinking map” of the world.
It quotes G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip, who, as Open Jaw reported, has been sanctioned by the Russian government and forbidden to travel to the country after the company stopped its tours there and banned Russians from its tours.
Russia isn’t the only country where the tour company has been forced to abandon business. Poon Tip “says that monitoring risk has become a game of whack-a-mole” where one country has to be dropped and others rise in popularity in its place.
U.S.-based security service Global Guardian produces a global risk map, and its updates indicate that in many countries, the threat of unrest and even natural disasters due to climate change has risen dramatically.
None of this is good news for travel.
But, in addition to following the government of Canada’s travel advisories, how can travellers still longing to travel make the best decisions? And how can travel advisors help steady the ship?
Comprehensive travel insurance is more important than ever, a lesson that seems to have been resonating since the pandemic, and which applies to many other travel factors than health.
In addition, expert knowledge is making travel advisors more important than ever.
For example, Michelle Whalen, a travel specialist in London, Ontario with Uniglobe The Premiere Travel Group, spent last weekend busy on social media - and in direct contact - with clients, educating them about distances between the unrest in Mexico’s Sinaloa region and their booked vacations in places like Cancun.
This kind of cool head, destination and industry expertise is key to navigating travel on “a shrinking map” - and to providing travellers with much-needed advice.
The pandemic is giving way to new travel challenges - all of which solidify the value of educated, informed and expert travel agents.
