Where will you go first when the bans are lifted?

[Anna]

I've pretty much resigned myself to not going anywhere for the rest of 2020. Sigh.

 

[Pushka]

I've pretty much resigned myself to not going anywhere for the rest of 2020. Sigh.

Christmas trip might squeak in though?

 

[Magoo]

I want to go back to Venice - before it gets crowded and dirty again.

It wasn't in my original planning (UK and France), but the pictures of the canals, etc., looking so clean and sparkling make me long to go back there.

 

[toowongman]

New Caledonia, friends' house in Mont-Dore. Supposed to be there now. Thanks China.
When the UK is back to whatever normal will be, a few weeks' trainspotting and chasing down brutalist architecture.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Well we aborted a 6 week trip to South Africa and the Seychelles after 5 days (just made it home before things got really chaotic) - a 5 week trip to Europe in mid-July is presumed (by us) to be impossible - a one week trip to Port Douglas late June probably also off the cards.

So first trip - will be Port Douglas once it is safe and permitted to travel to North Queensland - prefer to support the Australian tourist industry. This whole crisis has sort of put me off international travel (emotional issue) - may feel differently next year.

 

[Deskorpio]

Interesting thread! I have been dreaming each day lol. Got a reward and paid tickets with SQ for attending fam wedding in CPT this April. All canceled and the credit Must be used by March next yr (haven’t called SQ) . Wondering if i can use it for any other destinations/fare class later??

if so, will do a white xmas in Austria in Dec hopefully!

 

[Flashback]

Interesting thread! I have been dreaming each day lol. Got a reward and paid tickets with SQ for attending fam wedding in CPT this April. All canceled and the credit Must be used by March next yr (haven’t called SQ) . Wondering if i can use it for any other destinations/fare class later??

if so, will do a white xmas in Austria in Dec hopefully!

There were very few white Christmases over here last year so try not to centre your trip around it!

 

[Tiki]

Turkey in winter is my favourite time. The smell of chestnuts roasting on the street corners. Light dustings of snow. Magical.

I agree. Cappadocia was especially magical both from the ground and the balloon. And I had a few playful snow fights with Turkish friends which was fun!

 

[StevoQFtraveller]

Anywhere would be nice (outside of my four walls!)....

 

[offshore171]

Not a cruise ship. That much is certain.

 

[NSun]

I had a trip to South Africa planned in June on QF - hasn't been cancelled yet but likely will at this rate.

 

[scaredeycat]

As someone who is naturally risk averse I shall be doing may utmost to persuade the rest of the Cat family to holiday in Australia for at least the next year or so after the pandemic calms down, if only to have the security net of Medicare in case the worst comes to the worst.

 

[amaroo]

By the looks of things - a different suburb.

 

[Deskorpio]

There were very few white Christmases over here last year so try not to centre your trip around it!

Wow! Really?? where is best in Europe for some snow in Dec , pls advise

 

[Melburnian1]

My travel agent!

 

[AIRwin]

My travel agent!

Have they been impacted?

 

[Melburnian1]

Have they been impacted?

Have not spoken to the bloke for a few weeks, but sent a message and he suggested they were mainly 'rebooking' or 'cancelling' clients' fares.

Hard to think of many travel agents who wouldn't have been extremely badly hit. In smaller firms there must be a lot of stand downs/ redundancies if they're not sole traders. They just won't have the cashflow to keep paying staff I'd suspect.

I don't want to contact the chap as it's sort of embarrassing if you know what I mean.

All the publicity is about Flight Centre and to some extent Helloworld but what about online Webjet, bricks and mortar STA Travel and those (largely women) who are sort of franchisees and tend to book upper end overseas holidays? I think one group is called Travel Counsellors.

One of the worst features of "it" must be that there's no certainty about an 'end date', so few of us may have the confidence to book ahead. I don't know anyone in my circle who's game enough to book an overseas leisure trip yet.

Some AFFers are braver but that to me is a minority view not reflective of the community.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

We are already looking to book back to JP, US, UK and EU. Travel at the moment is just a hiccup in the radar. When SARS broke every one thought the world end and the modern smart phone did not exist. 17-18 years later everyone has a phone, an opinion and is an expert. Just my opinion.

You are certainly lot more optimistic that I am. I dearly hope that your optimism is well placed and my pessimism is misplaced.

By the time the global SARS outbreak was contained, the virus spread to over 8,000 people worldwide and killed almost 800.

CV 19 has already killed over 25,000. Recorded cases is already over 550,000 with the actual number of infected being most likely many multiples of that number.And these numbers are all most likely to massively grow yet.
All this with it clear that many countries like Indonesia are most likely suffering well beyond their official numbers. In addition SARS affected only 26 counties. CV 19 is worldwide.

SARS will provide little guide to the massive disruption that CV 199 will eventually cause.

International travel will be a major casualty. The longer CV19 drags on before a vaccine is widely deployed the more difficult it will be for international travel to resume. Without a vaccine travel for those who have not already been infected by CV 19 will simply be too risky. Currently the advice seems to be that a vaccine will still take 12 or more months away. Even if very effective treatments and cures are rapidly developed and deployed successful a vaccine will still need to deployed to allow widespread travel.

The other hope that further cheap tests will be developed to enough enough widespread testing so that all active cases can be quarantined so that the virus dies out. But that needs to be achieved worldwide to allow leisure travel.

The longer it drags on the more like that multiple airline and all manner of travel businesses will simply be wiped out. This another major barrier for travel to get up and running.



WHERE WILL I FIRST GO

Bush camping and fire affected areas.
And then the other problem is that poorer countries are likely to not have the resources to combat CV19, and so will still be potential sources of re-infection.

So at present it would seem to me that international leisure travel will be very difficult to be occurring at all in 2020 and even in 2021 the infrastructure may still be shattered even if a vaccine is out.


Hopefully Australia will be in a position to allow me to resume travel in Australia this summer.

 

[Melburnian1]

You are certainly lot more optimistic that I am. I dearly hope that your optimism is well placed and my pessimism is misplaced...

International travel will be a major casualty. The longer CV19 drags on before a vaccine is widely deployed the more difficult it will be for international travel to resume. Without a vaccine travel for those who have not already been infected by CV 19 will simply be too risky. Currently the advice seems to be that a vaccine will still take 12 or more months away. Even if very effective treatments and cures are rapidly developed and deployed successful a vaccine will still need to deployed to allow widespread travel...

And then the other problem is that poorer countries are likely to not have the resources to combat CV19, and so will still be potential sources of re-infection...

So at present it would seem to me that international leisure travel will be very difficult to be occurring at all in 2020 and even in 2021 the infrastructure may still be shattered even if a vaccine is out...

Great post, but say a vaccine is available in 12 to 18 months after rigorous testing and endorsement by Therapeutic Goods Administration in Oz and similar regulators overseas, wouldn't it mean if we were vaccinated that whether residents of 'poorer' countries weren't wouldn't really matter to us?

But I share your pessimism notwithstanding that with God's help, man has previously proven to be innovative and effective at solving problems like this virus.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Bali ASAP, I want to spend four to six weeks in Ubud. Also want to get back to London to see family, the first of the LHR flights in my forward bookings is in August but that's looking like a probable no go simply due to the lack of available metal.