After nearly a year of being cooped up indoors, Americans are desperate to get out and take a vacation – especially with airline vouchers nearing their expiration date.
But let’s face it – travel is not easy these days. And to enter certain places, folks are required to quarantine first, making a vacation nearly pointless.
However, many desinitations are proposing a new idea that promises guests the ability to enjoy their quarantine by staying at a special resort – but there is a catch.
Currently, to travel to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, guests must quarantine for ten days.
Clearly this has hurt their tourism – who really wants to pay to travel just to be locked inside a majority of their vacation?
People don’t fly to Hawaii to stay in their hotel rooms.
So, government officials decided to come up with a plan and create “resort bubbles” that allow guests to roam “freely” while they quarantine.
To participate, guests are asked to provide a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours. If their results are negative, then they are given a tracking travel device to wear at all times – which, of course, they must pay for themselves!
If they commit to wear the device, then they’re allowed to enjoy a 3-day “resort quarantine.”
Yes, really.
You’ll be required to wear this device so you can be monitored at all times like you’re on house arrest.
But you’ll still be required to take yet another COVID-19 test after your 3 days (and yes, you’ll have to pay for it too) before you can enjoy the entire island at your leisure.
The Points Guy says:
“The program called an “enhanced movement quarantine,” was approved by Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami on Dec. 30 and is distinctly different than the state’s pre-travel testing program that is in effect on the other islands. That program has allowed travelers to bypass an otherwise mandatory 10-day quarantine with a negative COVID-19 test from an approved provider taken with 72 hours of departure to the islands.
But faced with rising cases and limited medical capacity, Kauai opted out of that program in early-December. Since then, there’s been no way around a mandatory quarantine of 10 days upon arrival to the Garden Island — until now.”
Government officials hope folks will opt for this option to avoid a 10-day quarantine.
Even though you are still being quarantined for 3 days, at least this “resort bubble” type of quarantine allows you to lounge by the pool (sporting your prisoner bracelet) while you do it.
Not exactly good for tan lines, though! Ha!
But while Americans may be eager to get out and travel, I can’t imagine this program enticing them.
How much of your freedom and privacy are you willing to give up just to take a vacation?
We’ve gone from having to prove you’re healthy, to invasive questionaries, to now physically wearing a tracking device to monitor your every move.
Personally, not only would I not pay to wear a tracking bracelet, you couldn’t pay me to wear one.
Once citizens allow the government to cease that much power, it sets a dangerous precedent.
Stolen freedoms are difficult to get back.
And with talks about mandatory vaccines just to fly…
… it’s no wonder so many Americans are opting for a road trip across the country instead.
If these types of mandates continue, I expect air travel to decrease significantly as the years go on.
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