Chris Mayne says running a travel business has been a challenge and the Omicron variant is not helping.
"In spite of the lack of business, we have not had a boring day for the past two years," admitted Mayne, who is the owner of Mayne Travel here in North Bay.
He admits they are struggling with the new challenges clients will and may experience if they decide to travel as COVID-19 cases worldwide continue to escalate due to the Omicron variant.
"We started to see an uptick of travel through the fall as people started to get comfortable travelling again," said Mayne.
"Omicron has given a number of people a cause for concern because we have seen some cancellations. We are also seeing some not travel and even some new bookings early in the new year."
Mayne says the initial travel advisory was for 30 days and is being re-assessed by the government.
"Some people are comfortable travelling if they have got both vaccinations and the booster and possibly if they are in a lower risk age group, some seem to be comfortable travelling," said Mayne.
"Others in a high-risk category certainly have been looking to cancel and re-book."
Mayne believes one of the biggest issues for travellers is if they are still covered by out-of-province insurance.
"As soon as you leave Ontario having hospital and medical coverage out of province is critical for everyone and so far the insurance companies have been saying it is a travel advisory and not a travel ban. So far the insurance companies have still been providing coverage and that gives people a little bit of comfort in that they are still travelling," said Mayne.
Mayne notes that the other piece to that is penalties.
"Some of the tour companies, cruise lines, airlines; if you have insurance it may or may not cover you if you cancel because of Omicron or the other COVID-19 variants, even if you are in good health and at the point you are going to cancel, but we are seeing some of the tour companies and cruise lines adapt their change penalties," said Mayne.
"So rather than just see someone forfeit 25 per cent or 50 per cent of the costs they paid earlier in the season, they are allowing those to be used for future travel credit rather than an outright penalty and that was a source of hesitation for some as well."
Mayne says travelling is being done but in reduced numbers. He still admits the numbers are better than last year during the holiday season of 2020.
