Alper Aydın 
As of every week since the beginning of the summer, the updates on the travel bans continued to be on the news. The drama of the US travelers kept on since they are barely accepted by few countries to visit. Except for the travel bans, the UK based company called Indie Campers launched their sharing-economy platform that allows people to rent each other’s vans. The trend of renting vans for this summer due to the pandemic had been an opportunity for the new start-up. And finally, the aviation sector still is struggling both financially and operationally. As the most vulnerable sector hit by the pandemic, the sector has a lot to solve.
Updates On The Travel Bans
The Drama of The US Travelers Continues
It seems that things are not going to improve by this summer for American travelers. In the summer of 2019, over 14 million Americans went abroad spending around $150 billion during their trips. And the numbers are just the second after Chinese tourists. However, it seems that the nations preferred health over the wealth this year by rejecting American citizens. Americans are not allowed to enter the EU, Canada, and Mexico at the moment. And if they want to visit the UK, they are subject to the 14 days of quarantine which is not very favorable.
But still, there are a couple of countries that welcome their American guests. As we mentioned earlier the Maldives are welcoming American visitors where a sea and sand holiday can be an option. Also, Croatia doesn’t follow the EU ban and allows visitors all around the world. By the beginning of July, Egypt eased its travel restrictions and allows US citizens. Meanwhile, if you would pay a $3,000 deposit, you can also visit Cambodia.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
List of Countries Accepting US Travelers
- Maldives,
- French Polynesia,
- A part of the Caribbean,
- Croatia,
- Cambodia,
- Egypt,
- Rwanda
Still, American travelers should be careful about their travel choices. Any travel bans and restrictions between governments may come and travelers may face risks of staying stuck in the countries they visit in case of sudden flight bans. The question is when it would worth again to go on a holiday abroad under such expenses.
European Union Updated Safe Country List
Since the beginning of July, the EU started to ease travel bans gradually. And the Union started to accept visitors according to the updated list of safe countries. By the latest update of 8th August, the US and Brazil were still out of the list. Whereas in the previous update, Serbia, Algeria, and Montenegro were on the list but a recent number of cases made them out of the list once again. And according to the latest update, the lift will be removed to China as well, if China removes the travel bans to EU countries reciprocally.
List of Countries That Can Enter The EU
- Australia,
- Canada,
- Georgia,
- Japan,
- New Zealand,
- Rwanda,
- South Korea,
- Thailand,
- Tunisia,
- Uruguay
Innovations In The Travel World
Airbnb Keeps On Its Interruptive Offers
Along with the Uber, Airbnb as one of the most interruptive businesses of the travel world, the company continues with its creative offers. People will be able to rent the last nostalgic Blockbuster in September for a limited time through Airbnb. The cost of a night will be only for $4. The place will also contain classic movie theater snacks, including Doritos, Crunch, and others in their 90’s packages. Stayers will have access to the entire collection of the tapes and classic movies during their stay.
Airbnb Of Caravans: Indie Campers
In our various posts, we got your attention to the fact that this year will be the year of camping and caravaning. Camping and renting a van became the trend of this summer due to the open-air nature of camping and providing the people privacy that they look for because of the pandemic. The British company called Indie Campers had been to see this opportunity. Therefore, they launched their new platform where the people can rent their own campervans to the others. The company also offers its own fleet of over 1200 campervans in over 40 locations across Europe.
“Within the current changing travel landscape, this move enables us to align even more with the ever-emerging trends of the sharing economy, adding to our supply of flexible, authentic and sustainable travel experiences, and matching the growing widespread interest in getting into nature and away from the crowds.”
Hugo Oliveira, CEO of Indie Campers.
Well, actually the case shows that every crisis happening comes with different opportunities. Because every crisis arouses different types of demands the new type of solutions are always coming to the order of business. Our story of Travelinsightpedia also had such a story if you would look at it. Coming to the end, just a piece of quick information for our readers, the term sharing-economy is used for platforms where the renters and hires are the private individuals. It can be also called P2P (peers to peers) model. And start-ups like Airbnb, Uber, and Bla Bla Car can be shown as one of the best examples of sharing-economy models. Such a business model really fits the travel sector. That’s why I called Indie Campers as the Airbnb of caravans as it also has a sharing-economy model.
Aviation Sector Keeps On Struggling
Qantas Is Selling In-flight Biscuits, Tea Bags And Premium-class Pyjamas To People At Home
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we saw that airlines are coming with different ideas to cover their costs. A drastic decrease in the demand for the seats, many airlines laid off their employee to cut their costs. And also they had to find new ways of profitable solutions to make their income sheets alive. The biggest savior of airlines was to use their passenger aircraft to transport cargo. However, Australian carrier Qantas came up with a very different way of earning some extra money. Qantas offered 10 packs of typical freebies that include 12 chocolate biscuits, a sleeper suit, and the kind of smoked almonds that only first-class passengers normally get for $18 a piece. The airline announced that the packs were sold out within hours. However, obviously such kind of revenue can’t be compared with the revenue of the seats sold.
France Bans Reusable Face Masks Onboard Planes
According to the passengers traveling to France in an EasyJet flight was denied to be boarded because they were wearing reusable masks rather than the typical surgical masks. Passengers who were refused to be boarded to the flight claimed that such information was not declared anywhere. And the Easyjet wasn’t also providing such surgical masks for their flights. Thanks to other helpful passengers who had extra masks with them rescued the fellow passengers. Although many people didn’t know, the fact is that French Authorities declared to refuse fabric rewashable masks in their July statement. However, the application of the rule varied from airline to airline. The best scenario seems to use typical green/blue hospital masks in flights not to face such problems.
Specially-trained Dogs In Dubai Airport to Detect Coronavirus In Passengers
Dubai is only accepting passengers who have their negative test results taken in the last 96 hours prior to the arrival. However, passengers from high-risk countries or showing symptoms may be subject to secondary screening. Medically trained dogs that they can detect the coronavirus over 90 percent accuracy are hired at Dubai airport. Sweat sample taken by the passenger put in a pot. After that, the trained dog smells it. So that there is no contact between the dog and the passenger. If the dog detects a positive result, then the passenger goes for the nasal test to get the final result. Although such talent of dogs can sound surprising, dogs are oftentimes used for such medical detections.
The First Ever Socially-distanced Concert In the UK
It became a regularity for Travelinsightpedia’s weekly news section to share interesting art events’ updates with our readers. So this week’s new style of event scene is from the UK. The audience had a chance to watch the performance of Sam Fender in Newcastle. To keep the people socially distanced, everyone had their own private boots to participate in the concert. They could also order food and beverages without leaving their boots. All in all, the set-up kinda looks fancy and VIP. Well, personally, all these new types of event set-ups remind me of some sort of futuristic movie scenes that people are being separated. We will all see how the post-COVID era will look like. And, if this privacy and putting distance with ‘strangers’ habit will be with us in the future.
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See you next week with more travel news!
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