As the long series of lockdowns and pandemic restrictions continue, and in some cases are reimposed, there seem to be more incidents of people who just won't comply, no matter what.
Our colleague, Travel Rob, found a variety of non-compliers on his trip home to Florida earlier this week, with lax enforcement (although Delta has turned at least one plane around and returned to the gate to remove a mask defier). And, in demonstrations similar to some in the U.S. earlier this year, several European cities have seen anti-mask, anti-rules marches. In Berlin, 17,000 showed up, without masks, but with rage against the rules.
A major aspect appears to be frustration in places where restrictions were being lifted and then tightened again as spikes in infection rate appeared, as in Spain and Germany, or in places such as the U.K. where the government has gone back and forth on rules for travel, leaving many unsure whether they can travel.
A survey by YouGov, a major polling company, found that half or more of British, German and French vacationers would rather cancel than go into quarantine on return home; two-thirds of Germans said they would cancel if they were required to take a test on arrival and nearly as many say they would cancel rather than vacation with masks.
Obviously, there is no way to predict the outcome, other than continuing spikes where rules are flouted, but it seems clear that for the travel industry things are bleak, between the large numbers who won't go if they have to be careful and the probably larger numbers who won't go because they are careful.
Image: Anti-mask demonstration in Berlin
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