Why do people want to go on holidays abroad this summer? (Not travel to family)

[WombatChocolate]

Given we have put in huge efforts to reduce the virus in this country over many months, I struggle why people (not the holiday industry) are so keen to whizz off for a couple of weeks of sun, when we know the virus is surging in parts of the world.

What is this about?

The only thing I can think of which makes any sense to me is that they have already booked, or had a booking carried forward from last year and fear losing the money. Somehow they would rather go than sacrifice the money and that has led to large numbers wanting to go.

We all know that mutants will come into the country through travel and it’s impossible to keep them out, so why do people want to go so much?

Is it that they just love a sunny holiday so much they don’t think about the possible consequences? Is it that they do t want to lose the money? Is it that they are jabbed and so don’t believe their travel can have any consequences? Is it that they don’t know about levels of virus around the world? Or is it that because the holiday industry wants to open up (very understandably) they have been influenced by them?

I really understand people who have family abroad, how difficult the travel issue is for them and I do understand why they want to go and often feel they must go. I’m not asking about that. It’s just the standard holiday I’m interested in, because I don’t really get it.

Anyone who has thoughts about it, or is keen to go and feels like saying why.....many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I'm not bothered about bringing back mutants for the following reasons:
I'm going to a country that will have similar vaccine levels to us.
I think that some sort of covid will be around for years and I'm not prepared to put life on hold indefinitely, we're going have to learn to live with it.
No one was bothered about me going to work when infection levels were high and rising (I'm a teacher, I got covid at work), I don't feel I owe society the sacrifice of staying in the UK.
I don't think me going on holiday will make any difference in the grand scheme of things, once travel is allowed people will be travelling, me missing out will not make any difference.

Me and DH will both be vaccinated and love to go on holiday but we won't be going this year.

The possibility of rules changing before or during our holiday will be too stressful and I don't want to go to a country which has lots of restrictions in place so if I can't just go and enjoy like I used to then it isn't worth the money.

Whilst I appreciate the posters who say that life's for living and variants will be around forever etc, unfortunately the government don't agree at the moment and choose to lock us down if numbers or variants rise up. This means you may have a fab 2 weeks holiday but if it means being lockdown for 3 months with kids homeschooling again then I don't think it's worth it.

A fairly open society here and stay local for now seems the best idea. Not for those with family abroad though.

Good point about the rules changing & having to self isolate. A few people I work with were caught out on the last yr & lost half their salary.

@lughnasadh

The virus is just as likely to mutate in the UK. Say... Kent for instance.

It'll probably mutate to become as harmless as the common cold eventually, so perhaps he should speed things up by shooting off all over the place.

I'll travel anywhere that'll have me.

Exactly this ! Viruses mutate, not just in foreign lands ....

Because I like going on holiday.

I like planning them. Didn't go away last year for the good of people and all that. I shall be going this year as soon as I can.

I spent all last year stuck indoors cowering behind my sofa and still got covid anyway. I'm not putting my life on hold anymore.

OP you say that people’s children may pick up variant strains of Covid - which they might indeed.
But they could pick those up in school, playing sport, anywhere really. It’s bound to happen.

I'd love a foreign holiday as much as the next man but if it means bringing in other variants that might cause us a problem and more lockdowns and then I would rather not have a holiday for as long as it takes and be able to live a normal life in this country, the sacrifices that people have to make if the variants take hold are just too great for me to warrant a week in the Sun as much as I would like to.

I do feel sorry for all those people affected by this industry but if we don't take a stand and Out government are not strict about this then we'll just keep going round in this merry-go-round cycle of lockdown non-lockdown and in all honesty I don't think a holiday is worth it.

I think the OP is really wanting us to say - God yes, you are so correct, I really am a total selfish prick - thanks for putting us straight OP 🙄

Also because UK holidays are generally shite

We're dual citizens due to go to our other country, although we don't plan to see family. We booked the tickets last summer to go this summer. Vaccination rates there are due to be very high by August and chances are they, like the UK, will have reached herd immunity by then. If we can go, we will. DH and I will be fully vaccinated in June and we will take precautions with our DC, but we're no more concerned to go there than we are to be here.

I think there'll be a lot more backlash to any more of these bloody lockdowns so really am not going to fucking stay at home anymore out of that fear.

@jerrywesterby

I think the OP is really wanting us to say - God yes, you are so correct, I really am a total selfish prick - thanks for putting us straight OP 🙄

Yep.

@jerrywesterby

I think the OP is really wanting us to say - God yes, you are so correct, I really am a total selfish prick - thanks for putting us straight OP 🙄

There's a lot of hostility towards travel on MN, usually veiled in concerns for 'the environment' and more recently Covid, especially the dreaded vaaariaaants.

As soon as holidays abroad (to popular destinations) are assured, they'll skyrocket in price and go like hotcakes. People are desperate to get away - not to sit on the M5 for a day then on a crowded beach in Devon.

£5000 for a caravan and £8000 for a holiday park! Dire.

@PicsInRed

I didn't go abroad last year, like a good little girl, seemingly every other fucker did and I'm not making that mistake again.

This isn't going away any time soon or Boris' coterie aren't willing to let go of control so I'm taking my hols where and when I can get them.

And this^

We holidayed in Derbyshire last year. It was nice enough, but the weather was cool, mostly grey and we had a couple of days of rain. Friends went to Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal - and they had a lovely time and I wished we'd done the same. I'm not staying at home again this year unless it is literally the only option. Covid variants will be around for the rest of my life, my kids are getting older, we only have a few more years when they'll want to come away with us and I'm not wasting another one!

No, not looking for people to say ‘yes you’re so right’. As OP I asked as I was genuinely interested in people’s thinking.

I laid out at the start that because I’m struggling with the idea of gong abroad, despite really wanting to, I wanted to understand why some people feel really happy and keen to go. As I said, the people I know all seem to feel the same and want to go abroad, but feel sadly this year they will just have to give it a miss.

I asked because I wanted to know and I’m able to hear thoughts that differ to my own.

A couple of people said the Q or my thoughts were ‘a bore’ but I guess no-one has to engage with the thread if they find it to be like that.

I’m happy to talk about the issues and reasons. I dont feel happy to go abroad this summer and I do worry about the impact of lots of international travel on the autumn. But I know lots of people are booked and will be heading off at the first opportunity, I know that if the government allows it, it’s perfectly legal ...of course! It doesn’t worry me that people see things differently to me and I don’t feel the need to abuse them for it. I’m just interested to hear what people think. It is food for thought.

Some people don’t seem to understand that variants can just as likely pop up in the UK as anywhere else in the world. Variants are where the virus mutates to spread more efficiently through whatever part of the population is unvaccinated or unprotected by their immune system.

Variants do not just choose Asian people; or Brazilians.

I’m not worried about holidays, just as I’m not worried about variants popping up in schools, running through children who will be the only people left vulnerable to Covid (other than people who have decided not to get the vaccine).

What’s to say that doesn’t happen? That suddenly, only children and the very young get ill. Still, we don’t go closing all schools just incase, we all still insist our children get an education.

Some might argue education is more important and on a societal level that’s true...but individually my holiday is more important to me than other people’s children. Sorry, but that’s just how it is.

So as I’m not worried, I’ll take a vacay... and those with concerns can stay here.

YANBU OP. People say life is for living and international travel will simply stop us living our lives in our own country as cases surge again. People feel very entitled to holidays (people managed without them in the past) and put them above everything.This year is not the time for international travel but too many people can't see past their all inclusive I'm afraid.

I think the way to look at it @WombatChocolate is that you staying at home or not isn't going to make any difference to the UK's Covid levels. So instead of stressing about that, just decide whether you feel comfortable travelling, whether you'll enjoy yourself if you do, and whether you'll be able to relax and have fun. And if the answer to those questions is 'no', then stay in the UK.

This summer we won't have the situation where the govt announces on a Thurs that countries are going onto the quarantine list at 4am on Saturday, leading to a horribly stressful, expensive and probably Covid-spreading scramble to get home asap, so it really is about your own comfort level. The responsibility for decisions regarding mutant variants coming into the UK is the govt's to make, not ours, and since they're allowing 8000 people to fly into the UK every day even now, when British citizens are banned from flying anywhere makes a mockery of all this angst anyway.

We had a holiday carried over from last year. We've just rescheduled to next year. We are absolutely gutted not to be abroad again but it just isn't worth it. I wish they would just say no to all holidays and give us a fighting chance to avoid mutants.

We have a holiday home in Spain that has sat empty for months on end I'd quite like to spend time in a home that I'm paying the up keep on every month and getting no use out of. Plus the flights are a hell of a lot cheaper than a holiday in the UK

Because Cornwall last year was eye blastingly expensive, it'll be even worse this year, the Cornish don't want you there and make it v v clear, and we got hit by Storm Francis. So it was cold, wet and expensive. Can't think why anyone would want to go abroad...!

@Bluetable

YANBU OP. People say life is for living and international travel will simply stop us living our lives in our own country as cases surge again. People feel very entitled to holidays (people managed without them in the past) and put them above everything.This year is not the time for international travel but too many people can't see past their all inclusive I'm afraid.

We managed without loads of things in the past so let's stop doing them as well

Your struggling with the idea of going abroad as you have been programmed through constant news drip feeding that you should stay at home as if u breath on anyone you could be the cause of their death. Once you become accustomed to people going abroad you too will start to talk to your family and decide to go abroad/to the shops/ to the pub etc. would the world be a better place without planes? Of course! A better place without planes, cars, mobile phones, mountains of plastic. Was it the best plan in the first place to stop human beings interacting to save an un known about of deaths? That’s a big question, especially taking into account the world is over populated and suffering due to this over population. Is there any point disputing decisions made by governments considering they are influenced by the tech giants and fuel billionaires? And finally in answer to “why do people want to go abroad this summer” why on earth do you think they would not? Human beings take risks - all the time - unless you stop us we will continue to take risks (I hope to god no one puts permanent blockades on my freedom to travel.

Because like @PicsInRed I didn't go abroad last year, but still ended up in lockdown because other people did. If I'm allowed to go on this Augusts's carry forward from 2020 holiday, then I will, if I'm not then I won't simple as that.

Oh and it's perfectly possible still to find reasonably priced UK holidays through booking.com provided you don't want to travel to Lake District or Cornwall and Devon.