'Vaxications' a boost to travel industry

Ms Josephine Darwin, 65, marked March 3 on her calendar and planned to celebrate it with gusto.

On that date, she and her husband John, 67, would officially be immune - or as near as can be - from Covid-19.

Newly vaccinated with the Pfizer shot, the Nashville retirees planned to fly to Charleston, South Carolina, for a post-vaccine vacation. Call it a "vaxication".

"I can't begin to describe our excitement to get out and meet people again," says Ms Darwin, who has not left her home since March 17 last year, except for brief walks around the neighbourhood and to get jabbed.

As soon as she and her husband had their vaccination appointments, they started planning.

A two-week vacation in Newfoundland, Canada, is now on the books for September, assuming borders open by then. (They may not be; Canada's eastern provinces have been so strict about pandemic travel bans, they have even denied entry to fellow Canadians.)

As the United States' vaccination roll-out has sped up, so have requests for vaxications.

"We have seen a 25 per cent increase in travel inquiries since the first round of vaccinations became available," says Ms Leah Smith, president of Denver-based Tafari Travel.

"Pretty much weekly, I am getting e-mails from clients saying they just got their first vaccination and are ready to plan the next two years of travel.

"It's not uncommon to get up to four trip requests in one e-mail."

Ms Brooke Lavery, a partner at high-end travel consultancy Local Foreigner, says: "People who normally take five to seven trips a year, and for whom travel has been a lifestyle for decades, are doing celebration trips."

The movement may be premature. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed its release of updated safety guidelines for Americans who have been fully vaccinated.

To date, the organisation has continued encouraging those inoculated to wear masks, continue social distancing and avoid crowds.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US president's chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has publicly expressed caution about post-vaccination travels, given the possibility of spreading the virus along the way.

Ms Charlotte Benedict, 74, is ready to take the risk.

She is three weeks into her second dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, and her husband Roy is a few weeks behind her.

The retired Dallas-based couple will celebrate immunity with a golf trip to St George, Utah, next month.

"Travel was our life," she says. "We cancelled five trips last year and are ready to resume our travels."

A farther-flung plan to safari in Kenya with their adult daughter, however, is on hold until next year.

Destinations that offer outdoor settings and naturally social-distanced activities are still proving most popular, even to travellers with immunity.

"People want to start out with remote places where they can be outside most of the time," says Ms Lavery. "They're still not ready to return to busy resorts."

Mr Ted Martens, chief marketing officer of the wildlife travel operator Natural Habitat Adventures based in Boulder, Colorado, says bookings jumped as soon as vaccines started rolling out in December.

"We've been riding the pent-up demand for the last two months," he says. "After months of hovering around 35 per cent to 45 per cent booking rates, we saw a jump in January and have been hovering around 80 per cent of normal booking volume these last few months."

In many cases, the thirst for open spaces is an excuse to check off big bucket-list vacations, which explains why such places as Antarctica have led the way for the travel industry's recovery.

The white continent, along with Egypt and Rwanda, has driven an outsized share of demand for Ms Melissa Biggs Bradley, founder of luxury travel firm Indagare, who says most inquiries are for immediate and not long-term plans.

"We are seeing much shorter sign-up windows," she says. "People who have just been vaccinated are eager to get away in the next month or two to places they'd usually spend months planning for."

These requests are keeping travel operators busier than they have been in a long time.

Ms Biggs Bradley says bookings remained anaemic from March through October last year.

But in November, following news of the first promising vaccine results, she saw an uptick that has continued to grow.

Through last month, her agency reported 100 per cent increases in bookings week-over-week, achieving the highest volumes the company had seen since lockdown began.

Mr Craig Beal, owner of Travel Beyond, a boutique safari specialist based in Minnesota, has also seen these signs of optimism.

In the last two weeks, he has had at least five clients mention vaccinations as the reason for initiating trips.

His clients are among the demographic that has not been financially affected by the pandemic - if anything, lockdowns have merely curtailed their spending.

"After a year without travel, restaurants or entertainment, clients are finding they have a lot more money than they did a year ago," he says. "They're upgrading trips they deferred last year with that extra money."

There is still a catch: Vaccination does not make the hassles of travelling in a pandemic disappear.

"There's a whole layer of procedure and regulations people aren't used to, and it keeps changing," says Ms Biggs Bradley. "It's not as simple as having a passport and vaccine."

Many clients think they can spread their wings two weeks after their second shot, and her team has had to rein them back in with the realities of quarantine rules and border closures that still apply to vaccinated travellers.

Worries about virus variants also have some vaccinated travellers, like Ms Darwin, still taking extensive precautions. She even bought a face shield for her first flight.

"We've spent the past year dreaming of travel and planning trips," she says.

"I'd rather wear a mask than stay home."

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