Today, Intrepid is taking a vital step to take away our international vaccination requirement, efficient December 31, 2022. This implies that as of January 1, 2023, travellers will not be required to current their proof of vaccination to journey on Intrepid excursions.
Intrepid was one of many first international tour operators to introduce a compulsory vaccination coverage in August 2021, and I’m extremely happy with the management we’ve proven in not solely defending communities and our travellers, however in serving to advocate and improve entry to vaccines via our on-going Intrepid Foundation marketing campaign, Give the World a Shot.
Our resolution to take away this coverage doesn’t mark the top of the pandemic or negate the significance of vaccines and boosters. However, it does replicate the realities we’re dealing with as a enterprise in restarting our operations, a lot of which I’ve seen first-hand.
Over the previous a number of months, I’ve travelled everywhere in the world speaking to our travellers, leaders and host communities throughout ten international locations on 5 continents, and I’m fortunate to have witnessed the unbelievable pleasure journey is as soon as once more bringing again into individuals’s lives. But over this time, I’ve additionally consulted with colleagues world wide and have come to actually perceive how the elimination of world journey restrictions and mandates has impacted our day by day operations.
With the elimination and adjustments to applications and necessities like ArriveCAN, Thailand Pass, and Digital Passenger Declaration, together with the elimination of border restrictions and different certifying protocols, governments in any respect ranges world wide have made it clear that the extent of safety you may have towards COVID-19 is a private alternative. And the power for us to confirm and decide travellers’ vaccination standing precisely and independently at a worldwide scale is a problem that we should handle.
This coverage change has not been taken frivolously, and as a enterprise, Intrepid stays staunch supporters and advocates for vaccines. We recognise the immense privilege that it’s to journey, and we’ll proceed to behave on our ethical obligation and responsibility of care to the communities we go to. Even when our coverage ends on December 31, 2022, the protocols which can be designed to make sure the well being and security of our travellers and communities is not going to.
We’ll proceed to uphold our enhanced well being, security, hygiene and sanitation protocols on our journeys. We’ll nonetheless strongly suggest symptomatic travellers to check, and anybody testing optimistic will probably be assisted to depart the journey and entry medical care (if required). Depending on the vacation spot, they might be required to isolate for a time period and should then be capable to rejoin the journey, if native laws enable. The full listing of unchanged well being and security measures might be discovered on our Safe Travels Hub.
The results of COVID-19 are nonetheless being felt world wide, and the virus is circulating extensively. Vaccination charges, particularly amongst weak communities, stay low and the elimination of this coverage mustn’t counsel in any other case. But Intrepid travellers actually perceive the important function vaccines play in defending individuals from the danger of extreme COVID, and even earlier than our coverage was launched, 97 per cent of Intrepid travellers had been totally vaccinated. I urge you all to please proceed doing all your half to guard yourselves and one another by making certain your vaccines are updated and that you simply obtain your boosters as quickly as they grow to be accessible.
Thank you in your help. For full particulars and FAQs go to Intrepid Travel’s Safe Travels Hub. To donate to UNICEF’s international vaccine fairness work, go to the Intrepid Foundation’s Give the World a Shot marketing campaign.