Destinations

Category Archives for Destinations.

The Jones Act: How Secretary Of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Will Keep Poor People Poor

by Gary Leff

Jan 22 2021

The Jones Act requires cargo ships traveling between U.S. ports to be built in the U.S., owned by U.S. companies, employing only U.S. workers. That means a ship from Asia can’t stop in Hawaii, drop off food and other products, pick up other cargo and continue to the West Coast. As a result goods are generally shipped to the mainland and then from the mainland to Hawaii. That’s one reason why things are so much more expensive in Hawaii.

Secretary-designate Buttigieg supports this because unions like it, and West Coast Senators like it, and the voices of the poor in Puerto Rico who are kept poor aren’t heard nearly as loudly.

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Hawaii Expects To Lift Covid Testing Requirement For People That Have Been Vaccinated

by Gary Leff

Hawaiian resort
Jan 21 2021

Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor, an emergency room physician responsible for the state’s arriving passenger testing program, says to expect the testing requirement for arriving passengers to be lifted this spring for those who have been vaccinated.

While we haven’t proven that those who have gotten the vaccine don’t spread the virus, or that they spread it far less than those who haven’t, no one believes it doesn’t have this property we just don’t know for certain the magnitude of the effect yet.

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What Visitor Quarantine Is Like In Thailand Right Now

by Gary Leff

Jan 21 2021

Thailand is technically open to visitors, but even with a negative Covid test there’s a 14 day quarantine requirement and the idea of being stuck inside a hotel room that long hasn’t been popular. It’s attracted only a few hundred tourists per month to the country.

However people will go to greater lengths to visit friends and relatives than they will for just a vacation long enough to justify the quarantine period. I saw on social media that the owner of my favorite Thai restaurant was back in Bangkok, in the middle of his quarantine period at a hotel with his wife. He was gracious enough to share his story and some photos.

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Vaccine Tourism Has Started With Trips To The UAE, India And Morocco

by Gary Leff

Jan 17 2021

I think everyone’s ready to get back to normal after 2020 and a rocky start to 2021. Vaccines hold that promise, but the rollout is slow. And those with the means will go to lengths to accelerate their shots. That’s why I wrote back in November that I expected vaccine tourism to become a trend in early 2021. Last month we started to see travel agencies advertising vaccine tourism packages.

And now trips are actually happening.

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Qantas CEO Says Australia Will Re-Open To Visitors In July. Government Says Not So Fast. What’s The Truth?

by Gary Leff

sydney opera house
Jan 05 2021

Qantas started selling international tickets – for New Zealand at the end of March based on an expected ‘travel bubble’ reciprocally permitted visits between the two countries – and July 1 for the rest of their international route network including the United States. The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, said he expected the country to re-open to international travel at that time.

The government of Australia was none too amused with Joyce’s announcement but they didn’t deny it.

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Do Travel Bans Make Sense During A Pandemic?

by Gary Leff

Dec 29 2020

The U.S. ban on travel from China was poorly executed, the ban on travel from Europe came too late, and the list of countries chosen for bans was incomplete. Once the virus was spreading, the U.S. didn’t ban travel within the country. Travel bans can work – see New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, etc. – but they have to be absolute and they can’t be lifted until the threat has passed.

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Hawaii Restrictions Changing Again, Kauai May Re-Open To Tourism With 4 Day Quarantine

by Gary Leff

Dec 24 2020

No Covid-19 restrictions on travelers have been more erratic than Hawaii’s. The state’s planned re-opening date got shared and then pushed back several times. Communication around what tests would be accepted to avoid quarantine was poor. Even the state itself has gotten this wrong, sending a family into quarantine even with proper negative tests.

The island of Kauai even opted out of testing to avoid quarantine entirely after first re-opening with tests. Only their quarantine on arrival was 10 days, not 14.

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