Canada Drop All Covid Border Restrictions
Canada has dropped all remaining travel restrictions related to the pandemic meaning vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers from anywhere in the world can enter without restrictions. The changes came into effect on 1st October.
Canada had lifted most travel restrictions ahead of last winter allowing international travellers back in, but then reintroduced random testing in the summer at a limited number of international airports – but ones key to skiers including Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver, at the time Back at the start of July
“For us, bookings have slowed for Canada for 22-23 ski holidays in the last couple of weeks with the announcement they are returning to randomised airport testing on arrival,” Scott Britton, Head of Commercial at the UK’s largest ski holiday operator Crystal, said at the time.
Now though, all testing and isolation requirements and the need to wear masks when travelling have been dropped.
To the south, the US continues to ban unvaccinated travellers from entering the country, unless they are US citizens, and there remains no option to take a PCR test and enter if you get a negative result as there are for some countries that still have travel restrictions.
“I don’t imagine it will be long until the U.S. follows suit – last year the U.S. was three months behind Canada in opening its borders to vaccinated travellers, so hopefully they’ll be easing their restrictions imminently,” added Nickie Mabey of Mabey Ski.
There are rumours that this travel restriction will be dropped soon but nothing confirmed.
For European skiers, Richard Sinclair of SNO reckons prices are closer than usual for holidays on the other side of the atlantioc over peak periods,
“If you’ve ever wanted to ski the giant motorway pistes of Colorado, or the dramatic powder of Whistler, this is the year that European and North American prices are the closest they’ve ever been,” he says.
Canada’s ski season is expected to be in in a month’s time on November 4th with Lake Louise the first to name its target opening date.
