We are excited to announce the newest addition to the Taste Vacations team! Meet Sarah Wohlner, our new marketing and tour operations lead. But she’s no stranger to the Zephyr United world as Sarah joins us from the other business unit in our company, Zephyr Conferences. We think you’ll love Sarah’s passion for travel, calm energy, and attention to detail. Want to know more? Check out the short interview below:
Hi everyone this is Allan Wright. I’m the President and Founder of Zephyr Adventures, Taste Vacations, and Travel Montana and I’m here again to talk to you about COVID for the first time in four months.
Today’s subject is – is it time to start worrying about the next COVID wave now. We know that things are pretty good here in the United States right now but we also know that in some Asian countries, they’re experiencing a bit of a boom in cases and that cases are increasing in many European countries as well. The reason is two-fold really over in Asia. Many of those countries have done such a great job at keeping COVID at bay that the new omicron variants are infecting people who are vaccinated.
In Europe, it’s a little bit different. They are primarily seeing a surge because of this new BA2 variant of the omicron variant of COVID and so we often follow what happens in Europe, in terms of this pandemic are very likely to see a similar increase in cases in the coming weeks and probably lasting for a couple of months until it goes back down again. The question then is is it time to worry and I think the answer is no.
Recently I have found myself in a travel malaise.
I did not plan any travel at all during the first week of January, when my daughter was off school for winter break. We were in the peak of the Omicron variant surge. Instead, we hung out at the house and, frankly, had a great time.
I canceled my participation in a cross-country ski weekend I had planned with a local outdoors group. Granted, we were supposed to get a snowstorm making traffic terrible – but others who were signed up continued as plan while I stayed home.
This past weekend, over President’s Day, I researched flights to Florida for warm weather or to Colorado for a ski weekend. The flights were either super expensive or leaving at terrible times. I opted not to go.
I run a travel company. I traveled to Mexico to run a sea kayaking tour in December. I am scheduled to guide five trips later this year. Yet I have been reluctant to travel and content with that decision. What is going on?
We have not recovered from the Delta variant yet, only to enter a new phase with the onset of the Omicron variant. While we don’t yet know whether the new variant is more severe (the initial evidence is that it is not) or whether it can more easily get around the vaccines, we do know it is much more infectious.
Many of you are likely considering a flight for the upcoming holidays or for a winter vacation. After all, news outlets (and we at Taste Vacations) have been talking about living with the pandemic and moving on with our lives. So how do you fly safely during COVID, especially with the more contagious Omicron variant?
Today, August 30, the EU made a non-binding recommendation to its member countries to ban non-essential travel from a handful of countries, including the United States.
The EU had added the US to its “safe travel” list in June but, because of increasing COVID cases, the US was really outside the parameters of that list for the past month or so. This move had been expected.
Because the EU decision today is non-binding, it will be up to each country to determine its own rules and there are excellent indications vaccinated travelers will continue to be allowed.
