Travel bans are mobility restrictions imposed by a government based on their statuses, such as health and vaccination. After the first coronavirus wave outbreak, most countries imposed travel bans to contain the virus. To visit a particular country, you need to present a valid certificate of COVID-19 vaccination. But are travel bans necessary in the current century? This article evaluates the effectiveness of travel bans.
Travel bans tend to cause economic stress rather than add value to nations. And that’s because the success of travel bans is still debatable, but their adverse economic outcomes are clear. Travel bans cause damages even to the most established economies.
COVID-19 originally came from China, and Chinese visitors are highly dependable on some economics. They receive a significant GDP from Chinese tourists, massive spenders. With the travel bans that governments have implemented, countries such as Vietnam, Japan, Australia, and the U.S have been hungry for Chinese tourists. And this shows that travel bans are unnecessary.
The recent travel bans have impacted human mobility significantly. And this has caused a decrease in international and domestic numbers of air passenger traffic. Those working in airports will also lose jobs due to reducing air passengers traveling. Thus, travel bans are unnecessary for such people.
Creating travel bans can be resource-intensive with unseen public health benefits. Therefore, some experts suggest that countries should create enough spaces for isolation and build infection prevention capacities in health facilities, spending their resources on those measures.
Travel bans are part of the pandemic response strategies for some countries. However, the World Health Organization has criticized the practice. Nevertheless, some countries have gone ahead with it. The majority of COVID-19 cases are still in China.
