It’s just not fun to travel anymore

Sarah ‘JetSetSarah’ Greaves-Gabbadon, a Miami, Florida-based travel writer and influencer, has had to travel for work. Since November 2020, she has flown to the Caribbean 18 times and cruised four times.

Greaves-Gabbadon beams whenever she speaks about the region and is a self-described lover of the entire travel experience – from packing and being at the airport to boarding the aircraft and getting to the destination.

“I really love everything about travel,” she told The Sunday Gleaner, with sheer joy in her voice.

However, since the onset of the pandemic, all that she loved about travel have become the things she dreads, revealed the travel writer. So instead of enjoying the atmosphere at the airport, she has become fearful of it; instead of relishing the company of fellow travellers, she fears contact with them; and instead of anticipating her trip and the preparations for her flight, she is placed under stress by it.

“There’s a lot of fear and anxiety that come with travel nowadays. And a lot of extra stress because of … the entry protocols. And depending on how easily you can get a test and how quickly you can get your results back, up to almost the last minute you’re stressed about whether you’re going to get on a plane, frankly,” said Greaves-Gabbadon.

“If I did not have to travel for work, would I have taken as many trips as I have since November? Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” she repeated for emphasis. “Because it’s a lot of planning, a lot of stress and there’s really not a whole lot of fun in the actual mechanics of travel anymore.”

YEARNING TO EXHALE

After nearly two years of being cooped up behind closed doors and shut borders due to the pandemic, it’s no surprise that globally there’s a strong desire to travel abroad to shake off the listlessness of isolation and/or simply to feel alive again.

But even as this yearning for a place to exhale drives more and more people to go on holiday abroad – an estimated 1.5 million tourists visited Jamaica in 2021, according to the Ministry of Tourism – there remains a lingering fear of contracting COVID-19.

The thoughts of balmy weather, powdery beaches, lounge chairs and tropical cocktails are tempered by annoying brain-prodding nasal swabs, tension-filled waits for test results, constant temperature checks and hand sanitising, and the haunting feeling that you could get infected.

These are the stressful experiences that have left many, including Greaves-Gabbadon, the travel writer, and Ben Toppin, a Barbadian businessman, questioning whether travel during the pandemic is worth it.

As Toppin contemplated the many hoops through which he had to jump to catch his flight back to Barbados from New York, he couldn’t help but wonder whether the trip was worth the hassle.

Toppin, 64, had flown to the Big Apple on business and was due to return home on December 23. A rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant meant a delay in receiving his test results and Toppin finally got a flight back on Christmas Eve.

But it was the pervading anxiety that he felt – the tortuous wait and worry that he might be positive – along with the many tests and the accompanying expenses that led him to conclude that he would not venture abroad again any time soon.

“I do not think I would go on a shopping trip or a vacation at this point in time,” Toppin told The Sunday Gleaner. “I don’t think it’s worth it.”

Denise Bent, the owner of the London-based independent travel agency Fabulicious Travels, still believes travel is worth it but only if you’re prepared to cope with the various nuisances such as testing, the wearing of masks and the many protocols.

“I think it’s totally worth still travelling, if even just to get away so you don’t get the COVID brain,” insisted Bent. “You have to take more precautions and to make sure that you have all your I’s and T’s dotted and crossed in terms of the tests and stuff like that, but if you can get through that stress, then yes, why don’t you travel, get away from it all?”

AT A LOSS FOR WORDS

But Frank Comito, the usually sharp and fluid former Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) chief executive, was at a loss for words in his attempt to explain how it was possible for travellers to the region to have fun while facing the many hassles and inconveniences.

“Looking for fun is a challenge, but I think the fun is in the destination and what you’re looking forward to, you know, and a couple of inconveniences to get there is well worth it,” Comito, a special adviser to the CHTA, stuttered. “That’s part of the fun; I don’t know.”

Ramona Cruickshank, 40, a high school teacher in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, describes herself as a social person who often engaged in recreational and leisure activities such as attending concerts, enjoying the nightlife, and dancing, but has been grounded by the pandemic.

Cruickshank, who normally travelled every year until the pandemic struck, had not visited her native Grenada at Christmastime in 20 years before she took a two-week holiday there this Christmas. It was her second visit for the year, having travelled there in the summer when flights from Canada resumed for the first time since the onset of COVID-19.

She agreed that there’s not much fun in travelling these days but said the benefits of a holiday far outweigh the inconveniences.

“There’s nothing fun about the travel process,” Cruickshank told The Sunday Gleaner. “But you get to Grenada and a lot of those other anxieties that you have from all of the different lockdowns are gone. I am more at ease. I just wanted to be in a place that I can just relax.”

“When you get to where you’re going and you see the people you love or you meet new people that you bond with, you realise it’s all worth it,” added Greaves-Gabbadon.

Similar sentiments were shared by Marcus, a 44-year-old lorry driver from Toronto, Canada.

Marcus has visited his native Jamaica several times since the reopening of borders, but said the constant testing was a huge deterrent to travel.

“It can be very inconvenient,” he told The Sunday Gleaner. “And if you test positive you cannot leave.”

FINANCIAL BURDEN

Added to the many stressors that travellers face is the extra cash they must find to cover the costs of testing.

Cruickshank, the high school teacher from British Columbia, Canada, said she had to fork out an additional US$1,000 for tests for a single trip.

The financial burden can be even higher should there be delays that force the flight to arrive outside the 72 hours by which the PCR test must be taken. For a family of four, this could prove to be exorbitant.

“For me, the biggest hit is in the pocket. It cost much more money to go now because of all the PCR tests that’s required,” explained Cruickshank. “If you’re a family, I don’t know how you do it. I don’t.”

One person who’s not deterred by various protocols and inconveniences is Patrice Stafford, the owner of Where 2 Now Travel, an independent travel agency in Washington, DC, USA.

Stafford visited Jamaica in November through to last month – she also travelled to the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2021 – and said she enjoyed every moment of her trip, contending that despite the many challenges, travelling is fun.

“Absolutely. It’s not a bother at all … because all the precautions that they are taking is to keep you safe,” the travel agent told The Sunday Gleaner.

But even with the most stringent of COVID-19 tests, the most elaborate and bureaucratic verification process and the strictest protocols, the risk of being infected remains. And it’s something that Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon, the Florida-based travel writer, cannot ignore.

“I used to like to sit on the aircraft and relax, be disconnected, read a book, watch a movie, maybe just stare out the window, but now you are sitting in this tiny, thin capsule hurtling through space, double-masked so you can barely breathe, and the whole time you’re just thinking there is an invisible, silent, minuscule killer virus in this cabin that we don’t know about, and that we hope we are going to remain safe from,” stated Greaves-Gabbadon.

“So, there’s nothing relaxing or fun about it anymore, it’s really just how can I get from A to B as safely as possible, keeping myself safe, but just as importantly keeping the people in the destination safe.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com