Travel has many benefits, including better health, psychological well-being, social network development, and improved skills. But it’s not a necessity like food or health. However, as we’ve seen at Covid-19, travel is necessary for some professional activities, health reasons, and more.
Essential Travel
The term “essential travel” is used when it’s necessary to travel in times of crisis. The term was widely used during the Covid 19 crisis to define when travel is necessary when constraints exist.
“Essential travel” can mean traveling from your home to a place inside or outside your city, within the country’s borders, or abroad.
Examples of Necessary Travel During Covid-19
Healthcare
In countries around the world, essential travel for health means getting vaccinated against Covid-19, getting medical treatment, or getting surgery.
If you plan to travel abroad, be sure to check the travel advice of your government and the country you’re traveling to.
E.g., If you’re from the United States and want to travel to Costa Rica, you need to look at the U.S. and Costa Rican government travel advisories (the same applies if you’re traveling from one member state to another)
Ensure your Covid 19 vaccine is up to date and you take the proper Covid 19 testing.
If you don’t follow all the required steps correctly, you could be stuck in quarantine when you arrive, even if the Covid 19 test is negative.
Also, ensure your tetanus vaccination is current before traveling to countries outside the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe. Injuries can occur even if there’s no risk of disease where you’re going, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Check to see if any medications you need are legal in the country you’re traveling to.
Travel insurance can help you get help if you’re sick or injured and also if you’ve to cancel your trip. Nowadays, some International travel insurance policies may cover a trip cancellation related to COVID-19.
Note that some countries require insurance – check with your home country’s official travel advice website. The State Department website in the US has a lot of helpful information.
Business Travel
Essential work is people who provide services that keep businesses and the economy running during a state of emergency.
This may include healthcare professionals, government officials, factory workers in the food industry, employees of banks, grocery stores, public transportation drivers, etc.
Essential workers need to travel because they need to get to work and back home quickly in an emergency.
As vaccination status increased in many countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, travel restrictions for business travel were lifted in many places as long as travelers carried their Covid 19 vaccine and could demonstrate a negative Covid 19 test result (for disease control).
Family Purpose
Depending on the importance of family matters, many countries have approved important events such as funerals and weddings with limited people during the travel restrictions.
Nonessential Travel During Covid-19
During the Covid outbreak, many people in Western countries viewed essential travel as an individual sacrifice rather than a national effort.
For some people, their own lives were more important than the lives of others, and the lack of unity led to the fall of many large cities during and after the first wave. Therefore, governments began to impose restrictions on nonessential travel for disease control purposes.
The Question of Nonessential Travel Restrictions for International Travel Will Be Raised Again
Before the Covid 19 travel restrictions, people were less likely to question nonessential travel. Especially in the workplace, workers and companies recognize that it’s not always necessary to meet.
I believe these questions will resurface as we see more infectious diseases and climate change issues. I also think the concept of most mandatory business travel will become a thing of the past, not only for public health and foreign affairs policy reasons, but also because travel becomes more expensive, because it will require special health insurance, and because taxes will be levied on domestic travel, international travel, and public transportation.
Of course, not everyone will be a fan of these changes, especially regarding business meetings. However, becoming more environmentally friendly has many benefits, including public health.
Regarding business international travel, being able to attend meetings remotely is beneficial for everyone. This saves you unnecessary travel expenses and helps you stay on top of your work.
Related: What Are the Social Impacts of Climate Change
We Live in the 21st Century, and It’s Time to Rethink the Way We Do Business
We’re facing climate change and need to be more sustainable.
New technologies like smartphones, mobile internet, and video conferencing systems exist. All of this allows us to work more flexibly, which I think is a great advantage for companies.
International and domestic travel can be expensive in terms of cost and time.
Companies should rethink their practice of traveling because it can save them money and time, both of which cost a lot.
For example, traveling from South Africa to South America, you spend money on hotel accommodations, airline tickets, travel insurance, and food. Sitting on a plane or waiting for a cab also takes time and energy; instead, you could use your time to work. In addition, since Covid-19, you must also take an antigen test, wait for the result, and, depending on the destination, even go into quarantine if you cannot show a negative Covid 19 test.
Traveling Is Not for Everyone
Traveling isn’t for everyone. People travel for many reasons: personal development, relationships, adventure, vacation, or work. But it can be expensive, time-consuming, stressful, and sometimes dangerous. The truth is that not everyone wants or needs to travel.
There are many ways to get to know a new place without going away.
Although it’s different from being on the ground, I’ve met people who’ve never traveled and sometimes knew more about the culture, traditions, and history of different parts of the world than people who’ve traveled.
Books
Reading books is also one of the best ways to learn about other cultures without traveling.
Reading allows you to get into the minds of the people of another country and see how they think, act, and live. I’m pretty sure that it’s much easier for you to understand the culture of another country when you read something written by someone from another country than when you visit it.
For some people, books are better than real-life experiences because you can control what happens, whereas, in real life, it’s not always so predictable.
Movies
When we watch movies, we often feel like we’re with the characters in the movie. Like on a journey, we’re inspired. We can learn many things from movies without going anywhere or doing anything in particular.
Internet
During the Covid 19 outbreak, travel was impossible. Planes were no longer allowed to fly, and boats were too risky. Therefore, many people travel via the Internet and meet people from other cultures online.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has been around for decades, but it’s evolved greatly in recent years. Now virtual reality offers us an enhanced experience; we can now visit almost any place 360 degrees and meet people there. With the recent advancements in this technology, virtual reality is more accessible than ever, and it’ll be even more immersive with the virtual multiverse coming soon.
There are some places in South Africa and South America that I’ve always wanted to travel to. On VR, I could be a virtual traveler and visit the areas with VR local tour operators; it felt like I was there.
Friends
I’ve always been an adventurous guy who loves to travel.
Some of my old friends never wanted to travel but were always interested in what was happening in the world. Every time I return from a trip, they want to know all about it. They want to know what the places are like, what the people’s cultures are like etc.
When I share my stories with them, it’s almost like we’re traveling together, and with today’s technology, like VR and the Internet, it’s even easier to share travel experiences.
Recently, I was traveling with friends on VR and was able to show them the area where I used to live in New Zealand and a few places I knew in South Korea.
Statistics
Coronavirus: Impact on the Tourism Industry
The coronavirus pandemic (COVID -19) has had a significant impact on public health and one of the linchpins of the global economy – the tourism industry. In 2020, global travel and tourism revenues were projected to drop from US$ 711.94 billion to US$568.6 billion, a decline of more than 20 percent. The region predicted to see the largest revenue decline is Europe, where revenues will fall from $211.97 billion in 2019 to approximately $ 124 billion in 2020.
In the United States, the labor force peaked at 164.6 million people in February 2020, just before the pandemic began.
Statistics on remote workers show that more than 4.7 million people in the United States work remotely at least half the time. 44% of companies don’t allow remote work, and only 16% hire only remote workers.