(CNN) – In Buffalo, New York, crossing the border to Ontario, Canada was as easy as a mile from the Peace Bridge on the Niagara River. But this is now a forbidden route.
US travelers are not allowed any time soon, as the United States has more cases of coronavirus from all over the world and numbers are increasing in some states every day.
“The chances of the United States are close to zero,” one EU diplomat told CNN. “With infection rates … they can’t even believe this possibility.”
Visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario will not be possible for US citizens as long as the US-Canada border remains closed.
LARS HAGBERG / AFP / AFP / Getty Images
Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a passion for travel?
Is it nostalgic for pre-Covid days when the U.S. passport promised access to most of the world? Worried about how they will be perceived and taken by foreign countries when the restrictions are finally loosened?
It is unclear for Americans that the future of travel is to be considered as a tourist; In many ways, it is controversial as long as travel to certain areas is prohibited.
Uninvited
And it should be like this for many people.
While the Covid-19 outbreak continues to swell in the U.S., a trip to Canada is unlikely to be a summer vacation option for Americans.
Courtesy of Rail Canada
Living in a small resort in British Columbia, Colleen Friesen hopes the US-Canada border will remain closed.
“Most Canadians strongly oppose the entry of Americans into the country due to the widespread infection rate of the United States. Although some states seem to rule the pandemic, we only shake our collective heads when we see the Oklahoma news allow a closed rally.” Friesen informs CNN Travel via e-mail.
Stacey McKenna, based in Colorado, is not ready to think about any international travel at the moment, but partly at risk of exposing anyone on her radar to be “economically and geographically highly vulnerable”.
“If I reach a place where I think that international (even air) travel would be appropriate, then I will start asking if I think I will be welcome.”
For New York-based travel writer Juliet Izon, it is discouraging and depressing to see where the United States is compared with other countries, months ago, when a summer vacation in Italy and the hope that things will continue will appear.
Izon believes that one day he will travel to Italy, but says: “In some countries I would not be surprised if Americans do not allow for a while or enter a really strict quarantine for years.” The US capture of Covid-19 would be “another black mark against us”.
The other? The state of US politics.
Friesen, who says that he appreciates that his country’s politicians are back to the scientific and medical community, is afraid of the “politicization” of the virus in the United States.
France is progressing in reopening stages, but US citizens are not yet on the list of countries that can visit.
BERTRAND GUAY / AFP via Getty Images
However, an EU diplomat who spoke to CNN at the beginning of the week on condition of anonymity qualifies the US-EU travel decision as a very sensitive issue and insists “this is only about health”.
“Of course, not being on the list can be seen as a political thing, when a country is allowed to enter and there is no other country, but this is a false representation of what we do. We want to open our borders, this is a positive step.”
Despite this statement and the EU diplomat’s insistence that “we want people to come”, some people worry about the changing landscape of travel.
“Instead of thinking about the near future of travel, I was thinking about how they would all affect xenophobia more generally,” McKenna says.
A holistic experience
Dennis Geronimus, associate professor and president of art history at the University of New York, has historically often combined business and leisure travel with Italy. He is not personally concerned about how to pick up again while traveling internationally, and someone who can travel in certain foreign lands long before other Americans.
This is largely due to the nature of his trip. Geronimus is typically hosted by international colleagues and admits that “it is different from going on vacation in a place that does not know anyone, and then just diving into culture, seeing sites and seeing other strangers on sites.”
Currently, American travelers cannot go to Italy and cities like Rome (above) to travel at least for pure entertainment.
ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP via Getty Images
Although Geronimus is still exposed to quarantine at this time, there are steps that should potentially grant access to US entertainment travelers to be banned.
In any case, although he wants to see the Raphael exhibition in Rome and collaborate with colleagues in Italy, he is not planning a trip to the region any time soon.
It may be deemed necessary, but Geronimus does not find it necessary. Instead, the professor prefers to focus on the measures required to attend on-site classes at NYU this fall.
Similarly, McKenna, whose history is in the field of medical anthropology and public health, thinks of other, bigger things: “I’ll be honest. I didn’t even ask if I would be welcome as an American” because international travel is not appropriate right now.
“We work with countries all over the world, including our friends in Europe and the EU, who are well suited to determine how we can best reopen international travel. Make sure Europeans have the capacity to return to the US,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Safety first
New Zealand Elen Turner is not about Americans, but with the number of confirmed Covid deaths and cases, it’s hard to ignore the restrictions that affect them.
“When the borders are reopened properly, I think New Zealanders will welcome Americans like any other traveler,” Turner said.
“We do not believe that Americans will do the right thing, given that it pushes back the pandemic protocols we see in the United States,” said Friesen, who was troubled by the US taking over the pandemic.
While New Zealand can form a travel balloon with Australia, Americans are not allowed any time soon.
Courtesy Shutterstock
However, for many people that CNN Travel speaks to, the health and safety of others – and to do the right thing – dr-d extraordinary.
Chicago-based photographer and writer Joshua Mellin: “I guess showing that traveling internationally for entertainment is a complete lack of care right now, you deserve every look you get.”
Mellin adds: “I personally think we are all global citizens, but there is still a fact that you do not have the right to access a foreign country, you are granted access.”
When it comes to entry permits for foreigners, Turner will be comfortable getting tips from the New Zealand government. Currently, returning New Zealand citizens must quarantine two weeks on arrival and no one is allowed.
In fact, what if the quarantine was applied to all visitors to New Zealand?
“So I think if the New Zealanders would be good at this if it were extended to all comers because our government managed the pandemic well and there was a high degree of trust in them,” Turner says.
He added, however, that he did not see this happening, and that quarantine no longer predicted New Zealand opening up to foreigners until necessary.
The idea of quarantine before the holidays is still the subject of scrutiny.
‘We open it again’
Mandatory quarantines can deter a passenger, while other areas without quarantine can convince them.
US travelers can fly to Mexico, but for most, the risks aren’t worth it. Pictured: San Miguel de Allende, Parroquia de San Miguell Arcángel in Guanajuato.
shutterstock
Whether it is hotel promotions, updates or casual policies regarding cancellation, the sweet choir of “we are opening” can skip the beginning of a very dark period in the tourism industry.
For most US travelers that CNN Travel speaks about for this story, welcoming or feeling welcome in another country is next to the point.
Danger of exposure and exposure benches. And then there is the fear of getting stuck somewhere in the distance.
Elizabeth Lavis, originally from New York, forced herself to leave Vietnam in March between the epidemic and sudden tight travel restrictions. What happened with this ordeal and coronavirus didn’t want Lavis to go away from home for the foreseeable future.
California-based writer Melanie Haikan wants to go to Costa Rica at some point and only watches places eager for visitors.
Nell lewis
Melanie Haiken, who lives in California, expresses her desire to help the struggling economies as a tourist and thinks of her future travel, including places that are not very close to her home anyway: “As for the international trip, I would be ready to travel again in August, but Guatemala and Costa Rica Turkey and Jordan, Scotland, Estonia and both the security seems likely to depend on how much the candidates that there are few places more tourism to the economy. “
Apparently a likely candidate Turkey. On June 19, Turkish Airlines restarted two North American routes with Istanbul (Miami and Los Angeles) following June 22 and 24. Towards the end of July, three additional centers will travel to the USA.
Any EU travel ban could change some things, but as of June 23, when CNN talked with Connecticut-based Caryn B. Davis about his upcoming trip to Azores in Portugal, the travel journalist hopefully plans to continue the next time, six weeks.
Pompeo Expressing the importance of the economy in the travel between the USA and the EU, “It is important that the USA gains the ability of the Europeans to return to the USA. It is very important for the Europeans to re-connect fully with the American. The economy is also.”
But until security concerns are adequately addressed, Mellin doesn’t think anyone should go somewhere, whether they are U.S. citizens or not.
“As a traveler who started at home and was disconnected by nature by visiting another country during a global epidemic, he has a responsibility to respect other people and places.”
But in fact, international travel can now continue earlier, but not later, in some unlimited places. “I am confident that in the coming weeks we will understand this not only between the US and the EU, but also between the US and other parts of the world,” Pompeo said. Said.
How will it look like?
“I think one thing, when I travel, I absolutely hope that we will empathize where we’re going …” says Geronimus.
CNN’s James Frater, Michael Conte and Luke McGee contributed to reporting this story.
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