Write an article about how to spend your summer vacation in light of the spread of corona virus. Please help
Answers
By
Christopher Elliott
Columnist
March 12, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. GMT+5:30
The coronavirus outbreak isn’t just having an immediate effect on travel, prompting a surge of cancellations not seen since
9/11. It also couldn’t have come at a worse time for travelers finalizing their summer vacation plans. Many need to make a final payment on a tour or cruise and are wondering: Should I go — or not?
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It’s a feeling I know all too well. I’m writing this on a train from Barcelona to Marseille, France, and Italy is where I was headed next. So now what?
“Summer travel is such an indispensable part of contemporary lifestyle that most American tourists will not easily give up,” says Robert Li, director of Temple University’s U.S.-Asia Center for Tourism & Hospitality Research.
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Your options range from pressing on with summer vacation plans to scaling back to outright cancellation. Each choice comes with risks and rewards, and it’s worth weighing them all before you make a decision.
Linda Singleton-Driscoll, a market researcher from Richmond, is sticking to her plans to attend a family reunion in Ireland this summer. She says her husband, a retired science educator, believes that the virus danger is often exaggerated.
“Our chance of contracting the disease while we are in Ireland is not really any larger than it is staying home,” she told me.
Although she may be in the minority, she’s far from alone.
“No one has canceled a vacation booked through me yet,” says Donna Manz, a Europe specialist with Caddie Tours in Vienna, Va., who describes her customers as “seasoned” travelers. “In fact, two clients are currently in Avignon, France.”
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The benefits to sticking to your plans? You won’t get hit with cancellation penalties. It could be an adventure. Travel companies are offering some attractive deals, too.
And the risk: You could get infected with coronavirus.
Others are taking a more cautious approach, particularly if their vacation plans aren’t firmed up yet.
Morgan Taylor, the chief marketing officer for a banking website in Los Angeles, told me that he’s spending a week in nearby Santa Barbara instead of flying somewhere exotic.
“You can’t beat the zoo, the ocean, the downtown shopping and the seafood,” he says. “Looking at it unemotionally, we’ll be traveling via car, and most activities are outdoors. We can easily keep six feet from strangers on the beach and at the zoo, if we so choose.”
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The benefits of a staycation include saving money on travel (although I wouldn’t classify Santa Barbara as a budget destination) and never being too far from home. If you’re still on the fence about a vacation, the day-trip option is a great way to experience the best of both worlds.
But others see a summer vacation as too risky. That’s the situation in which Richard Simms and his wife find themselves. They’re trying to cancel a luxury cruise of Great Britain and nearby islands. Simms, who is 78, says it’s not worth taking the chance. He can’t be sure they’ll get the medical care they need if they’re infected.
“We thought we were protected by having a Chase Sapphire Reserve Card in case we need medical evacuation,” he says. “However, we have learned that our card specifically excludes major epidemics like coronavirus.”
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