Foreign holidays are not essential. I just do not understand the obsession with them right now- not getting a holiday is disappointing, perhaps, but no more than that. People who need to go for work, education or on compassionate grounds may still do so. These are the only reasons people need to go. For everyone else it’s a want, not a necessity. All the whining about it seems so pathetic, tbh. There are bigger things to worry about.
I don’t view it as a sippery slope- it’s a way to try and stop further problems. Look at NZ- they stopped travel pretty quickly and continue to do so. They are in a much better place than us right now, though the closed borders is only part of the reason why that is the case. But it did help. And their lives are much less restricted than ours.
Right now, travel abroad may lead to the importation of new variant(s). The implications of that could be disastrous- economically, in terms of our children’s education, never mind the impact on all of us and the effect of yet more people unwell and/or dying. Do you really want yet another spike in cases? Or is a summer holiday abroad more important? The vaccines we are giving are less effective against the South African variant currently in Europe. I, for one, don’t want the vaccine programme to be wasted/hindered, just as it’s starting to get to the level of vaccination which it can start to hinder the spread.
We also know that last year the majority of people told to quarantine at home from a foreign holiday on their return did not do so. I understand why some people might struggle to quarantine BUT if you went abroad last year you knew there was a risk of the situation changing suddenly and that you may need to quarantine on your return and so should have factored that in. If you could not quarantine then you should not have gone. It was one of quite a few reasons we did not go abroad last summer even though we could do so.
All of this makes it necessary for foreign travel to be controlled.