Covid-safe holidays are the desired destination

It is a holiday with a difference. Next month, a select group of nearly 200 people will depart from the Netherlands for an eight-day “trial” getaway on the Greek island of Rhodes. They will be barred from leaving their all-inclusive resort hotel — where they will be the only guests — even to go to the beach. They must provide negative PCR tests for Covid-19 before travelling out and back, and quarantine for up to 10 days on return. Whether thanks to the €399-a-head price or sheer desperation for a foreign holiday, 25,000 people have signed up for the chance to take part in this experiment in Covid-safe tourism.

The vaccine rollout in Europe seemed to promise the return of summer holidays, with talk of “vaccination passports” to ease travel. Instead, the slow pace of EU inoculations is raising questions about whether the continent will be safe for the annual getaway. Even in the UK, where vaccinations are well advanced, politicians and scientists have begun warning summer travel is unlikely, because of the risk of importing vaccine-resistant strains. Perhaps paradoxically, the UK has chosen now — when it is close to having vaccinated all over-50s and vulnerable groups with at least one dose — to make all non-essential foreign travel illegal, with £5,000 fines for rule-breakers.

The travel ban legislation is in place only until June 30, and the government says it may be lifted earlier; under its road map for easing lockdown, international travel could potentially resume from May 17. Extending the ban beyond June might be the one thing that could finally spark a rebellion among lockdown-weary but rule-abiding Britons. The clamour for the right to travel abroad in the UK and countries such as the Netherlands shows just how much people value their summer holidays.

Staycations offer a chance for journeys of discovery within one’s own country. But they cannot offer the complete change of culture, cuisine and climate that makes foreign travel so enriching. Banning international getaways could also lead to domestic tourism facilities being overwhelmed, restricting access and pushing up costs.

Such discussions might jar with residents of, say, Australia, which closed its borders in March last year and has banned citizens from leaving unless granted an exemption on compassionate or other grounds. But there the quid pro quo, in essence, for the continuing restrictions has been a tiny number of Covid deaths — unlike in Europe.

Rather than closing borders, governments would be better to work with the travel industry on long-term ways to make travel safe. Even after richer nations complete first-round vaccinations, coronavirus could be circulating — perhaps for years — in developing countries. Yet mass travel bans would slow the economic recovery for all.

Vaccinations will already sharply suppress vulnerabilities to older virus strains. Advances in testing technology and availability, combined with domestic isolation for arrivals from lower-risk countries and compulsory hotel quarantine for those from high-risk areas, should make it possible to contain risky new variants. Travel corridors and “green zones” between countries with low infections and no vaccine-resistant strains could permit more friction-free movement.

Next month’s Dutch experiment is due to be followed by another with fewer restrictions; the government is planning trial trips, too, by car, coach, train, and cruise liners. Greece will also begin accepting test-run flights from the UK next month. The risk of mutant strains is real. But Covid-safe travel, not banning foreign summer holidays, should be the desired destination.