It is not as though travel advisors haven't been hit hard enough during this pandemic, the new COVID testing rules put into effect for travellers to Canada on January 7th is once again creating havoc for them.
The hastily-put together announcement which came late in the day on New Year's Eve gave little time for both travellers and the industry to prepare.
Under the new rules, all travellers to Canada over the age of five must provide a negative COVID test to board the plane. Tests for most countries must be done within 72 hours before departure, though the Canadian government has given travellers from the Caribbean and South America, a 96 hour window due to lack of facilities in those regions.
Travel advisors are, once again, left on the frontlines to deal with the mess made by the changes. Clients already in destination when the announcement was made are left scrambling to find a place to get tested. Clients who had been planning a trip in the next few weeks are cancelling.
"There are a lot of problems," says Brenda Slater, co-founder of the Association of Canadian Independent Travel Advisors. "First the Canadian government was recommending people get tested from approved facilities, but then there was no list of approved facilities given. That, in my humble opinion, should've been provided from the government, with links to these approved sites. It seems as there was no thought process put into the logistics of what (Transport) Minister (Marc) Garneau announced."
Many of the countries Canadians visit, particularly this time of year, are smaller countries who depend on tourism. They've been hit particularly hard and are eager to welcome visitors again. But some of them lack the infrastructure to accommodate testing on the scale that's required, resulting in bumped appointment times and long waits.
TravelPulse Canada spoke with travel agent Rhonda Mantay of Just Go Travel in Alberta, who is currently in Jamaica with her family. Her family of four had to go back to a clinic twice for tests, as the first day there were only three spots available. Government-approved sites in Jamaica are only in Montego Bay and Kingston, so it's a trek of several hours for some visitiors.
More importantly, some agents worry there's also an increased risk of COVID exposure at the site, which in Mantay's case, was an outside tent.
"I really felt very exposed and vulnerable to COVID getting tested in Jamaica," Mantay says. "The facilities consist of just an overhead tent in a parking lot, and there are a lot of people waiting to be tested who are not following standard social distancing measures. We probably had a higher chance of catching COVID there than we did the rest of our vacation."
The lack of direction from the Canadian government on accepted facilities is also resulting in price gouging. Slater tells us she has a family of four currently in destination, unable to get a testing timeslot to come home. They are "working around it" by paying a doctor $350 US each for a test that can be done in their timeframe required. Slater worries this situation is only the beginning as travel rebounds and more already cash-strapped locals are (understandably) trying to make a living.
Overall, Slater and Mantay don't understand how the government implemented new measures without consultation from the travel industry. Or how they somehow felt that countries with far less infrastructure than Canada would be able to manage the rush of tests that's now required.
"It's a burden put on these countries that are already suffering, much like the Canadian travel advisor community," says Slater.
Suffice to say, when it comes to ensuring a traveller has a negative test in hand, conducted witin 72 hours prior to arrival into Canada, the burden of this responsibility sits soely on the shoulder's of the traveller. However rest assured travellers will all be turning to the Travel advisors for guidnace. The upsetting component is, at least at this point, there is no credible source detailing accredited testing facilities in various destinations where PCR tests can be conducted, for professionals to turn to. Needles to say travellers should plan accordingly. There currently is no insurance coverage avaialble to offset cost's should a passenger be denied boarding because they do not have proof a negative test.
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