As CEOs from airlines on both sides of the Atlantic call for the immediate opening of a quarantine-free travel corridor between the United States and United Kingdom, I was shocked to learn that most Brits want all international travel banned despite a successful vaccine rollout.
British Are Not Enthusiastic To Travel Again According To Recent Poll
Ahead of the upcoming G7 meeting, leaders from the following airlines have issued a joint statement demanding a travel bubble between the USA and Great Britain and a jettisoning of quarantine requirements:
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Delta Air Lines
- JetBlue
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
And while leaders on both sides of the pond are keen to bring back international travel from an economic perspective, there may be an additional and surprising burden: public opinion is against it.
A recent Ipsos poll in the UK reveals the following:
- 79% are worried about a vaccine-resistant strain coming to the UK
- 79% favor stopping people entering the UK from countries with higher levels of infections
- 67% support stopping people returning from any other country
- 70% favor making people quarantine in hotels when they return from any foreign country
- 63% support bringing back lockdown measures in infected areas
- 58% favor banning Brits from traveling internationally
Is anyone surprised by this as much as I am?
I get that the virus is real and deadly…who can deny that? I also get that the vaccination alone does not eradicate the virus (at least until the entire world is sufficiently vaccinated so as to stop new variants from forming).
But I don’t view it as noble or responsible or wise to continue isolation after vaccines have proven highly-effective, especially when the livelihoods of so many depend upon it. If anything, it’s a bit nihilistic…
CONCLUSION
While leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are facing pressure from airlines to establish a travel bubble (and move the USA to the UK’s Green List), Brits seem perfectly content with the status quo. Hopefully that will change as more are vaccinated inside and outside the UK.
And friends, consider this another nudge to get vaccinated. A lady at my church got COVID-19 in December and lost her taste and smell. For months it did not return. But a couple weeks after getting vaccinated it did return. She’s elated. We need more data to determine if the vaccine played a role in that, but she is hardly alone in reporting these results.
Britain, like America, and many other countries, has a large subset of the population that is very insular in nature. I’m sure many Americans surveyed would prefer nobody being let in the US. They felt this way before COVID, and they’ll feel that way after it. Those numbers surprise me too, but this is a country that voted itself out of the EU. There’s clearly a lot of mistrust of outsiders, and I think it manifested itself in the poll’s results.
Among Britons who travel regularly, I’m sure a very different story would be told.
I don’t believe these polls just like I didn’t believe the polls that said Leave wouldn’t win. Researchers can get the answers they want based on how they phrase questions. Still, I have no confidence in the majority of people in Britain. I was going to say British public but Britain is occupied by non western foreigners to a severe degree. They aren’t Anglo Saxon/Jutes and therefore aren’t British/English/Scottish/Welsh. Actually Brits better start forcefully advocating for themselves before it is too late.
Fair point. London these days is about as “British” as the UK pavilion at Epcot Center. London likes to tout itself as a “world city,” which is codespeak for a place that sold its identity away to unchecked immigration. Looking at how resistant many of the ‘newcomers’ are to British society, and it’s no wonder so many ethnic Brits are looking to close the doors, virus nor not.
Australia is the same (although their vaccine rollout is much worse). I’m not surprised because this probably the same result they would have gotten prior to the pandemic.
There are reports that Delta (aka Indian variant) is now the predominant strain of Covid in the UK. Also reports that one dose of vaccine (Pfizer or AZ) is only 30-33% effective after one dose. People in the UK should be cautious. People in the US should avoid the UK for now, even if vaccinated. That’s my opinion.
« I was going to say British public but Britain is occupied by non western foreigners to a severe degree. They aren’t Anglo Saxon/Jutes and therefore aren’t British/English/Scottish/Welsh. « Wow, just when you think you’ve seen all the racist bull you can stomach for the day this little collation of ignorance pops up. So, as a British born Jew whose ancestors fled Central Europe where do I fit into this Jackson? I surely don’t fit your definition of being British. Oh yeah, what about British identifying Northern Irish people?
Could you get a jab for your racism before you darken these shores again? If not then please stay away.
I’d wager you would get the same or similar result for pretty much any country in the world.
A vast majority of people in the world don’t travel, don’t wish to travel and are suspicious of those who do travel.
It’s way more popular to believe that the problem is “outsiders” than the behavior of people living in the country, that either does or doesn’t spread the virus. Most of my friends pre-vaccine had no qualms about meeting non-distanced with their friends w/o testing, but would swerve to avoid strangers on the sidewalk, no outdoor dining or public transit, etc…
If someone has never traveled internationally in their life (and most haven’t), why would they believe Int’l travel is an important thing to bring back? Hence a large percentage against.
All good points. I guess I live in a bubble…
why would someone be afraid if fully vaccinated? Do we not believe in the science?
See how few breakthrough infections there are? You have a far better chance of winning the world series of Poker than you do of contracting the virus if fully vaccinated. Latest CDC data showed only about 1 in 10,000 fully vaccinated people have contracted the virus
@ Matthew — These are like the Trump polls. He will be reinstated in August. We’ve already booked the Willard.
Lol
I live in London, the overwhelming majority of people i know is refusing to travel internationally “right now”, particularly with no places to travel to with unrestricted access (either on the outbound or the return), and just seeing what the summer says.
There’s nothing wrong in just waiting it out, is there?
This blog has a lot of experts on British sentiments.
Not remotely surprising; likely universally true. Frequent travellers are ‘worldly’ in one sense but not necessarily very familiar with the views and attitudes of the Ma and Pa Kettle types , ie the vast majority of the population in every country ( and for whom the idea of international travel is likely to be a week in Spain, Bali or a Mexican resort for Brits, Aussie, Americans respectively)
I live in the UK
You can blame the fear mongering pro lockdown pro restrictions government mouthpiece BBC News for this. And the others : Sky News. channel 4, ITV etc just follow BBC. bBc news is 24/7 fear and doom and gloom. It’s wall to wall scientists who are allowed to come on 24/7 and give their opinion that the newest variant is just around the corner. The media in the UK is awful
If you ask whether people should be allowed to travel internationally today, you get one answer. If you ask Brits whether they should be allowed their summer vacation in Spain, you get the opposite answer. And, let’s not forget, the UK has had largely open borders throughout whereas the US has kept its borders closed throughout, despite the science.
And, if you ask your average person whether the G7 should go ahead, and Biden should be allowed in, the answer will be “no”. But, if you ask them whether they want a desired outcome, they will say yes. Non-contextual questions for low information people are largely meaningless.
This is a really interesting post. I recall being in Vienna last summer, able to get entry for essential work, and eating dinners with friends there each night. Everyone was talking about “how wonderful it was to have their city back to them during summer.” I could see a palpable energy of local Viennese friends who seemed to fall in love with their home all over again. They could just walk into their favorite restaurants, could stroll the streets without groups blocking every corner, and could see just how beautiful a place they lived in. I was even in love with Vienna in a way I never experienced before on countless trips. So, perhaps, just maybe, people are enjoying reclaiming their homes for a bit, being able to feel a sense of place that’s been taken away from them for so many years by mass tourism.
I have come to the conclusion that BoJo would like to make the UK like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and shut themselves off to the world forever. That’s the only way to make any sense of HMG’s baffling actions regarding international travel. What I’m having trouble with is squaring HMG’s reported desire for a US-UK travel corridor with the above.
@Derek – “why would someone be afraid if fully vaccinated? Do we not believe in the science?”
Because people are dumb.
What is it with the Commonwealth?!
@NBNB, one modest correction. US mostly kept its borders open, except to passport holders of EU, UK and handful of other countries and there almost no restrictions of any substance for US passport holders regardless of travel history. The remainder of your points seem spot on. Polls will tend to give the answer the pollster wants. Kind of an unholy alliance between lazy journalists and government/corporate interests.
is anybody really going to be upset to miss British summer travel?
I am derek, not Derek. Regarding Derek’s comments claiming only 1 in 10,000 vaccinated people got Covid-19, if true, that is because the time frame is short. Over a longer period of less than a year, more vaccinated people will get Covid based on the original clinical trials that led to the vaccines being authorized. Some have died. One US doctor died after visiting India despite being fully vaccinated.
During both the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson trials, all vaccinated groups had some Covid with the exception of a small Moderna study involving kids where no vaccinated kid got Covid.
Most people on these blogs are far from “normal” or maybe a better word is “average”. Most people don’t travel outside the country, often never own a passport, seldom have more than 1 credit card, etc.
A small percentage of the population make up a lot of the travel that occurs.