Covid-19 tips

Chinese state media defended on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as “reasonable”, while Chinese tourists decried Seoul’s “insulting” treatment on social media.

A laboratory study has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the UK’s travel restrictions last year.

Chinese tourists have flocked to train stations over the past two weeks, with 109.5 million journeys made between Jan. 7 and Jan. 21 in the build-up to Lunar New Year celebrations, which took pace on Jan. 22.

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote next week on a bill that would end a requirement that most foreign air travelers be vaccinated against Covid-19, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said on Friday.

Hong Kong leader John Lee unveiled on Thursday a promotion campaign that will include 500,000 free flights to lure visitors, businesses and investors back to the financial hub after more than three years of tough Covid-19 curbs.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to end on Friday mandatory Covid-19 tests for travelers from China, joining other countries in dropping the requirements, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.

When cruises started taking bookings at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, Australians Eunice and John Rowley quickly made plans for their first ever visit to New Zealand.

When the pandemic first struck in 2020, airline executives were quick to say there was no crystal ball to predict the future of the industry. Now, three years after the pandemic began and as it reaches its natural ebb, United Airlines says that future is coming into focus, with this year setting the path for the airline industry’s post-pandemic future.

Japan is having trouble servicing tourists arriving from abroad due to staffing shortages, amid surging demand for its historically popular cherry blossom season.

When China ended a lengthy border closure in January, e-commerce marketer Tianni Ren immediately began planning a team building trip for her 14 staff to Australia, hoping to see its stunning pink salt lakes that had captivated her on social media.

Hilton is outsourcing its property management system to the tech company HotelKey, replacing legacy systems at all 7,000 of the hotels under its brand. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 3. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Ryanair achieved close to record full-year profit in the year to March 31 and is cautiously optimistic that robust summer demand will ensure modest profit growth in the next 12 months despite fuel costs being less “fortuitously” hedged.

The Transportation Security Administration screened 2.658 million passengers on Thursday, the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trips for tourism in China during last week’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival climbed 32.3 percent from a year earlier to an estimated 106 million, 12.8 percent above the pre-pandemic level in 2019, the ministry of culture and tourism said.

The United States and China agreed to consider expanding commercial flights between the two countries to improve people-to-people contact, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said on Wednesday.

Anyone who had plans to fly at the start of 2020 will remember the travel nightmare that began that March when the spread of Covid-19 left a barrage of canceled and disrupted flights. 

How much of a hit has air travel taken during the COVID-19 pandemic? The short answer: Like nothing anyone has seen before. Even airline experts with long memories can’t remember a comparable impact of some critical event. Yes, 9/11 stopped air travel cold, but the immediate effect lasted weeks, not months. And the nation had a visible system in place—TSA screening—squarely aimed at preventing similar events in the future.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the insane immigration lines at the screening 13 airports where passengers waited hours in cattle-like lines, which definitely didn’t follow today’s protocol of social distancing. If I was scheduled to fly home, I would probably wait a few days until airports worked this chaos out.

Planning on traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic? Most airlines and hotels have stepped up their cleaning policies in an effort to help fight the virus. However, if you’re traveling, you should still be sure to do your part. Here’s how to disinfect your airplane seat and your hotel room.

World responses to pandemics—like the U.S.’s to the COVID-19 outbreak—are always a moving target. When it comes to contagious diseases, there are going to be new developments occurring every day. Of late, the 30-day Europe travel ban means that all U.S. citizens returning home from many countries in Europe (plus China and Iran) will be sent to one of 13 U.S. airports designated for screenings and then directed to self quarantine for 14 days.