2021: Travel Might Not Be the Stress-Reliever You Hoped For

Above, a social-distanced Delta flight in 2020. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

2020 was a stressful year in many ways besides the pandemic and 2021 is starting out somewhat better. Still, people are looking for an outlet to relieve the stress. Travel is seen as a major way to do so.

But is it?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted that travel might not be the stress-reliever it is hoped for in 2021.

They begin with:

The entirety of 2020 was brutal for most people, and the first few months of 2021 wasn’t exactly the panacea many hoped for. But now, you might've been lucky enough to snag a vaccination appointment — and may be feeling more confident.

Old-Unvaccinated-You wouldn’t get on an airplane, even if airfare was dirt-cheap. New-Vaccinated-You is ready to jump aboard a 40-hour, two-leg journey (plus stopover) in Dubai to finally check that Kenyan safari off your bucket list. You might have a two-year-old vacation fund to spend, not to mention a heckuva lot of stress to let go of. And on that note, a whopping 78% of respondents in the March 2021 American Express Global Travel Trends Report indicated wanting to travel this year to relieve stress from 2020.

Yet even if you’re vaccinated, 2021 travel might not be the stress-reliever you’re hoping for. In many ways, travel has only become more stressful.

Here’s what you can expect when traveling this year — and what you can do to be prepared or sidestep the added stress.

To read more, go here.