Dear Travelers, clients, and readers,

It's been over 4 months since I last posted here in October. Since then not much has changed in this industry, and overall the world is approaching the 1 year mark of the pandemic, when it closed the world. In that time countries have opened, closed, opened, closed, some have not opened since the beginning of this mess. I can count on two hands the number of clients I sent anywhere in that 1 year time frame. With those being domestic or Mexico. 2021 looks to be the beginning of a slow recovery. I currently have around 80 clients on 26 trips set to travel in 2021. Those destinations include Mexico, The Caribbean, Italy, France, Hawaii and Europe in general.

This is a good start, An average year normally would see 300-400 clients travel, consisting of around 100 trips+. So if clients are able/willing to travel to their destinations, the drop in business looks to average 75% over a normal year. Of course this is just the beginning of Feb 2021, and I expect travel demand to increase as the early months of the year progress. So hopefully those %'s will be much improved over the year.

But to start the year off, The CDC just went and threw another screwball into the mix to kick off 2021. The below letter went out to my client list directly via email last week, so you may have read this already, but I wanted to put this out on my blog to everyone as my first post of the year.

Like me, I know many of you are anxious to get traveling again, or perhaps, you already have a trip on the books in the not so distant future. I wanted to take a moment to talk about the new CDC travel order. While some additional steps are required to travel, it should in no way hinder your ability to travel internationally & I'm here to help.

• As of January 26, 2021, all air passengers, 2 years of age or older,  traveling to the US from a foreign country, will need to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery, directly to the airline before boarding
• If you plan on presenting a negative test result, you will need to get tested (NAAT or antigen test) no more than 3 days before your flight departs (both paper & electronic test results will be accepted by airline)
• If you plan on presenting documentation of recovery, you will need proof of a positive viral test (from within the 3 months prior to your flight) and a letter from your healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel 
• At this time, even if you have had the vaccine or tested positive for anti-bodies, you are still required to provide a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery
• Airlines must refuse to board anyone who does not present a negative test result or documentation of recovery
• This order is only applicable to air travel into the U.S. from International locations. It doesn't NOT apply to air passengers flying from a U.S. territory or possession to a U.S. state.  (U.S. territories/ possessions: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands)

Derek Schemonitz

Avenue Two Travel

Luxury Travel Advisor

412-345-7569

derek.schemonitz@avenuetwotravel.com