Now Is Not the Time to Travel Abroad (An Open Letter from 92 Travel Bloggers)

Published on: March 13, 2020

Editor’s Note: this letter was originally published March 13, 2020, during the initial wave of the covid pandemic.

It is our job to help you travel the world and to encourage you to venture and explore beyond your tiny corner of the planet. We choose to dedicate our work to promoting travel because we truly believe travel is a force for good. When done right, travel can help make you a better global citizen and can help bring societies around the world together in a positive way.

That is why we do not say the following lightly:

Now is not the time for recreational international travel.

The U.S. State Department has urged Americans to reconsider such travel abroad, as has a growing-list of other authorities like the government of Australia.

Even if you are not worried about the health consequences of becoming infected yourself, you potentially could spread the disease to new communities and to people in higher-risk groups for whom the virus poses a greater threat.

And, independently of whether you actually contract or spread the disease itself, traveling abroad now means you risk finding yourself in a quarantine or potentially stuck in a foreign country without an easy and safe way home.

Many countries have been banning international flights, either wholesale or from certain affected countries. Others have required many incoming travelers to be subjected to quarantine. Many of these flight restrictions have been implemented on short or no notice, and the public communication around the scope, timing, and effect of many of the bans has been confusing and chaotic. While some experts have questioned the efficacy of some of these travel bans as a containment measure, the reality is that they are happening and we are very likely to see more travel restrictions in the near future.

In light of the above factors, we believe that, at least for the present time, it is imprudent and irresponsible to engage in recreational international travel.

Please note that we are speaking specifically to recreational international travel. There are other circumstances where travel may be appropriate, such as repatriating yourself to your home country if you are currently abroad, or travel for essential non-recreational reasons such as by medical and health professionals.

Many of you have come to this conclusion by yourself already, but we remain concerned the message still has not gotten through to everyone in the broader global travel community.

If you remain unpersuaded, consider that, as travel bloggers, we are small business owners who stand to lose much or even all of our income as a result of this.

Telling you to stop international recreational travel is not in our best economic interests.

But, like the many other business owners around the world who are putting people before profits, we make this plea because we believe it is in your interests and in the interests of humanity.

Our plea is only temporary. While we cannot now tell you exactly how long you will need to avoid such travel, know that it is not forever.

There will come a time when it is safe and appropriate to travel abroad again, hopefully relatively soon in at least some parts of the globe.

You will likely be spending more time indoors in the coming weeks, which gives you a good opportunity to continue to plan your summer trips abroad. While we cannot know how long this pandemic will last, you can still plan your travel for summer and beyond without risk of financial loss by taking advantage of the fact that many airlines, hotels, and tour companies have recently offered generous and flexible travel cancellation policies.

You may find that reading travel blogs, planning your summer trips, and dreaming about the incredible travel destinations you will visit when this is over can be therapeutic in a time when we could all use a mental distraction. Continuing your planning also helps support the future of the ailing travel industry, which accounts for 1 in 10 jobs globally and has been hit hard by the global economic fallout from this pandemic.

In the meantime, please stay calm and do not panic. Wash your hands, practice social distancing, and follow the advice of the CDC,the WHO, and your local health authority.

We are in this together and together we will beat this.

Sincerely,