COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are losing their importance for world travelers. There are now more countries and territories — 118, according to Kayak.com data — that welcome any U.S. traveler without restrictions. Of the 109 destinations that still require testing, quarantines, or both for unvaccinated travelers, 17 don’t allow U.S. tourism anyway.
It’s a welcome turn for a global tourism economy that’s been hammered by the novel coronavirus, and a bright note for those looking for signs of the pandemic’s end.
The pullback in restrictions is “an acknowledgment that we’re in a new phase of this pandemic, where things are more stable,” says infectious disease epidemiologist David Dowdy of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As recently as Sept. 14, the head of the World Health Organization declared that “ the end is in sight” for the pandemic.
