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Thanks to coronavirus, we may have already reached ‘peak travel’

After restrictions are eased, we will travel less frequently than before. It won’t be because we can’t fly to Spain, writes Hamish McRae, it will be because we want to spend our money on something else

Wednesday 29 July 2020 00:14 BST
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Hong Kong is among the states to impose new restrictions on citizens amid signs of a ‘second spike’ in Covid-19 infections
Hong Kong is among the states to impose new restrictions on citizens amid signs of a ‘second spike’ in Covid-19 infections

Travel restrictions cannot be a long-term solution to the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organisation is right about that. As its emergency programme director, Dr Mike Ryan, put it: “It is going to be almost impossible for individual countries to keep their borders shut for the foreseeable future. Economies have to open up, people have to work, trade has to resume.”

But the reality is restrictions are cropping up all over the world. The UK’s quarantine on people arriving from Spain is one (rather disorganised) example of that. Germany, meanwhile, has announced a more nuanced ban on travel to Spain, avoiding non-essential travel to the regions of Catalonia, Navarra and Aragon.

As evidence of a second wave of the virus mounts, there are many examples too. Hong Kong has just banned meetings of more than two people and shut its restaurants. Vietnam has forced thousands of tourists to evacuate from the city of Da Nang. The Australian government has said that its six-week lockdown in parts of the state of Victoria may have to be extended as new cases have risen sharply.

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