Celebratory ‘Vaxications’ Are Giving the Travel Industry a Boost
Pent-up demand and a surplus of spending money have itchy travelers eager to check off their bucket lists.
Couple looking at Moraine lake at dawn, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
Photographer: Matteo Colombo/Digital VisionJosephine Darwin, 65, marked March 3 on her calendar with the importance of a golden anniversary and planned to celebrate it with similar gusto. On that date, she and her husband, John, 67, would officially be immune—or as near as can be—from Covid-19. Newly vaccinated with the Pfizer shot, the Nashville retirees are wasting no time getting back to travel: They plan to fly to Charleston, S.C. next week for a post-vaccine vacation. Call it a “vaxication.”
“I can’t begin to describe our excitement to get out and meet people again,” says Josephine, who hasn’t left her home since March 17, 2020, except for brief walks around the neighborhood and to get jabbed. As soon as she and her husband had their vaccination appointments, they started trip planning. A two-week vacation in Newfoundland is now on the books for September, assuming borders open by then. (They very well may not be; Canada’s eastern provinces have been so strict about pandemic travel bans, they have even denied entry to fellow Canadians.)