At the beginning of the year, the United Nations World Tourism Organization predicted that international tourism could reach 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels. As of mid-May, the travel website Kayak reported that a fully vaccinated traveler could visit 202 countries without meeting a COVID-19 testing or quarantine requirement. An unvaccinated traveler could visit 177 countries without testing or quarantine and another 21 countries with just testing.
Summer 2023 is the first one in four years that Americans taking an international trip largely don't have to worry about cumbersome entry requirements, masking in public places, or the possibility of being stranded abroad by a positive COVID-19 test. But we still need passports to travel, and the U.S. State Department is taking longer than ever to process them.
