Coronavirus travel bans are leaving more of us stuck abroad – but how effective are they really?

Expert advice from the World Health Organisation on restricting who comes into a country has been clear – but the economic fallout may not be, writes Simon Calder

Air travel has decreased around the world as people fly less during the pandemic (AFP/Getty)

So far on an interestingly timed trip that has encompassed Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Yemen, no teenagers have thrown stones at me while yelling “corona!”. But Roy from the Netherlands – who is another rare tourist on the Yemeni island of Socotra – told me he had been assailed thus in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

President Trump’s ban on most European travellers is the White House equivalent of youths hurling small projectiles and insults.

It is tempting to see his move as a vote-gathering ploy in an election year, building on the xenophobic rhetoric that proved so effective among (just enough) voters in 2016. But let me be generous and regard the presidential decree as a bid to delay the spread of the feared coronavirus, helping to “flatten the curve” of new cases and thus easing pressure upon finite medical facilities.

The Czech Republic has imposed a similar ban on British visitors, while the smallest and probably most tourism-dependent nation in the European Union, Malta, now insists on mandatory quarantine for all visitors.

From the start of the crisis, the expert advice from the World Health Organisation on restricting who comes into a country has been clear: “Travel bans to affected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from affected areas are usually not effective in preventing the importation of cases but may have a significant economic and social impact.”

But as we have seen with previous pandemics, politicians feel a need to be seen to be taking action even when its effect is marginal at best or questionable at worst.

The wider social and economic impact is to dampen any appetite for purchasing any kind of travel product. Since the start of the month, airlines, tour operators and cruise firms have been offering “worry-free” deals that allow the buyer to change their mind. But increasingly minds are being made up for travellers.

Socotra Island is the very definition of tranquillity – especially compared with the anarchy in the nearest nation, Somalia, and appalling war in the mother country of Yemen. Yet with just one plane a week flying to Cairo, the chances that we handful of visitors will find ourselves locked down is not zero. There are many worse places to be isolated – but it is time to get back to help my colleagues, who are working harder than ever.

Yours

Simon Calder

Travel correspondent