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Travel groups push to end pre-departure Covid testing: Travel Weekly

Posted on April 21, 2022 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

After a Florida judge this week struck down the rule mandating that people wear masks on public transportation in the U.S., groups including ASTA and the U.S. Travel Association applauded the move. But it was not the Covid protocol they most wanted to go away.

That distinction belongs to the CDC’s inbound Covid-19 testing requirement, which ASTA recently called “the single biggest barrier” to travel’s recovery.

The Society praised a group of legislators who are pushing to remove the testing requirement. The group is led by Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), who has asked the White House to exempt fully vaccinated travelers from having to provide proof of a negative Covid test before entering the country.

“While we understand the rationale behind the inbound testing order when it was put in place in January 2021, it continues to present a number of challenges to our constituents who must or desire to travel internationally,” the group wrote in a letter to President Biden.

The U.K., EU, Canada, Australia and several Caribbean countries have dropped similar measures requiring international vaccinated travelers to test in order to enter.

The requirement can make Americans skittish to leave the country, knowing they could be stuck overseas if they test positive. It’s also a deterrent to foreign travelers who want to visit the U.S. but are hesitant to plan a trip with the potential for a major snag just before departure.

Eben Peck, ASTA’s executive vice president for advocacy, said that removing the rule would also “supercharge the recovery of the travel agency business,” adding that many Americans have been putting off international travel because of the Covid testing requirement.

One example of how the rules can impact travel intent comes from Europe, where CWT recently released data showing a significant increase in bookings to and from countries that had recently relaxed testing and quarantine requirements.

Five weeks after the U.K. said that it would scrap testing for fully vaccinated travelers, weekly bookings for outbound international travel had increased 115% compared with the week before the announcement, while inbound bookings soared 169%.

Travel groups push to end Covid tests for U.S. entry

CWT said that in Norway, which ended testing for all travelers on Feb. 12, weekly outbound and inbound bookings rose as much as 72% (the week after the announcement) and 67% (three weeks after), respectively.

“We are seeing the highest levels of business travel since the pandemic began, and while traveler health and safety must always remain the number one priority, removing hurdles and uncertainty will be key in achieving a full recovery,” said CEO Michelle McKinney Frymire.

Tori Emerson Barnes, U.S. Travel’s executive vice president of public affairs, said that U.S. Travel continues “to urge the administration to immediately end pre-departure testing for vaccinated inbound international passengers, which discourages travel and provides limited public health benefits.”

Tori Emerson Barnes

Brand USA is the U.S.’s travel-marketing arm and itself does not lobby. But in a recent interview about how to boost the number of international visitors, generally considered to be the most lucrative travel sector, Brand USA CEO Chris Thompson said that it was in “lockstep with our advocacy partners.”

He added, “We’re in favor of anything that improves the situation, and certainly that testing requirement is still something causing some uncertainty and causing some pause in people traveling. We can’t get back to the numbers and the economic impact pre-Covid until all of that is fully relaxed.”

Getting from pandemic to endemic

Travel groups were also pleased with the possible end to the federal mask mandate, although the Justice Department is appealing the Florida judge’s order to void the mandate.

Barnes said it “effectively returns the choice of mask usage on planes and other forms of public transportation to travelers and travel industry workers, a further step toward endemic management of Covid.”

Chris Thompson

The idea of treating Covid as endemic is increasingly part of the language travel executives have been using in support of dropping pandemic-era travel protocols.

In deciding to stop requiring mask use on their planes — which all major U.S. carriers did the day the judge scrapped the rule — Delta released a statement saying, “We are relieved to see the U.S. mask mandate lift to facilitate global travel as Covid-19 transitions to a more manageable respiratory virus, with better treatments, vaccines and other scientific measures to prevent serious illness.”

Brand USA’s Thompson said that while he still sees a “bumpy road” to the end of the pandemic, it will take “getting to the point where it’s literally endemic, and we’ve learned to live with it and we acknowledge that.”

“In that regard we’re still being patient, because all that’s outside of our control,” he said.

Jamie Biesiada and Robert Silk contributed to this report.

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As air travel soars again, major airlines push for end to masks, testing

Posted on March 25, 2022 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

RALEIGH N.C. (WNCN) – Travel demand is back in full force, and so is wearing a mask while flying for at least another three and a half weeks.

Indoor mask mandates have dropped in Wake, Durham and Orange counties, as well as many school districts statewide, but if you want to fly, the TSA is still mandating masks.

“Do I bring a mask? Do I not? So I always keep it in my back pocket just in case,” Raleigh-Durham International Airport traveler Ross Morey said. “I feel comfortable going to like a store or just downtown, but in an airport, because there (are) so many people coming from all over, I think I feel safer with it on.”

Both the federal mask mandate and testing requirements for international travelers have been extended to April 18.

This week, CEOs for 10 major airlines, including Delta, American and United, wrote a letter to the Biden administration, calling for an early end to these restrictions.

Traveler Jennifer Brown agrees.

“It’s our choice at this point, I understood it at the time,” Brown said, referring to when masks were required early on in the pandemic.

Masks or no masks, tests or no tests, travelers at RDU say restrictions aren’t stopping them from taking to the skies this year.

“Once it was safe to get back on them (planes), I’ve been on planes – and I live in Connecticut (so) in the summer, it hasn’t stopped me,” Brown said.

RDU is reporting a 128-percent increase in passengers during February of this year, as compared to last.

Meanwhile, the airport is expanding operations for airlines such as Frontier, as well as bringing in more international flights.

But so far, all passengers will still be awaiting word on whether or not, by choice or not, they’ll have to wear a mask on flights.

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MPs push for end to passenger locator forms

Posted on March 3, 2022 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

The Future of Aviation Group has called on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to end the need for passenger locator forms for travellers arriving in Britain.

In a letter sent this week, Henry Smith, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Future of Aviation, urged Johnson to scrap the forms to “allow people within the UK and around the world to fly again without facing unnecessary rules and procedures that are no longer fit for purpose.”

Smith, who is also MP for Crawley, added: “This move should be a part of a concerted effort to help these vital sectors to UK economic growth recover from the pandemic.”

The letter noted the travel, aviation and tourism industries “devastating losses” because of the pandemic and said more needs to be done “to remove restrictions on international travel which continue to dampen confidence and sector recovery.”

The Future of Aviation Group was set up in October 2020 to tackle the challenges facing the industries as a result of Covid.

It recently announced an inquiry into the recovery of the travel and tourism industries and called for submissions from interested parties.

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After Public Debut, Sonder CEO Details Push for Corp. Travel

Posted on January 21, 2022 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

Sonder founder and CEO Francis Davidson talks:

The advantages of becoming a public company
Finding niche-use business travel clients
Securing corporate customers during a pandemic

Short-term rental provider Sonder this week debuted on Nasdaq stock exchange after shareholders approved its merger with purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos II. The day after, Sonder founder and CEO Francis Davidson talked with BTN lodging editor Terri Hardin about the importance of establishing a consistent stream of business travel demand and the steps Sonder is taking to approach that market.

BTN: The morning after, how did you feel about going public?

Davidson: Felt pretty damn great. This was an awesome milestone for the business. Incredible amounts of work have gone through building this business over the last eight years, especially with this unending pandemic. I’m incredibly proud of what the team has done to thrive despite all odds and to lead us to this point.

BTN: Why is going public now the right choice for Sonder?

Davidson: Going public gives us the capital we need to keep pursuing very rapid expansion and reassures our real estate partners. We’ve partnered with developers before they figure out the floor plan they want to adopt, and we co-create that with them in a way that’s optimal for the both of us.

We’re going to show our balance sheet, our financials and the progress of our financials. This gives a lot of comfort to the real estate owners and developers who are putting in sometimes tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars toward building these properties specifically for Sonder. Their banks and lenders also want to be reassured that we’re going to be able to perform.

BTN: To what degree did the pandemic play a part in your successes and your challenges?

Davidson: We took the last 22 months to develop new capabilities and lean into our strengths, like contactless service. That you can do so much on the phone and mobile app makes it much easier for someone who’s Covid-conscious to stay with us and receive all services digitally has really played to our advantage. Also, we were creative in identifying niche-use cases, like traveling nurses, which is an interesting demand stream for us. It’s allowed us to do really well on occupancy and to help perform on [revenue per available room]. It demonstrates what we do well and that our business model is resilient in the face of adversity.

BTN: To what degree will you make business travel part of your revenue stream?

Davidson: We want to be the premier global hospitality brand, and there is no such company of that scale that only serves the leisure transient traveler. We know it’s a crucial mix. Until 18 months ago, we focused almost exclusively on leisure. We’ve always wanted to tackle business travel, but it was important to do it at the right time. So once our leisure travel was robust, we thought, “Let’s move on to the more complex business travel segment, where the standards are really high.” We had to make sure that our experience was consistent and high quality.

Regardless of what one might think about the speed of recovery of business travel, our view is that in the very long run, this is going to be a substantial component of our business, and now’s the time to start building those capabilities. We announced recently that we’ve got over 100 accounts that have signed up as corporate customers that are that are relying on Sonder for their travel needs. They were all signed during the pandemic, so we think it’s been a good moment to lean in.

We don’t need to rewrite the playbook. When it comes to our business travel strategy, we’ve mostly hired industry people who know how to do this and know the intricacies of what travel managers are looking for.”

BTN: How are you pursuing corporate contracts?

Davidson: We have a sales team. We’ve hired some veterans from the hospitality industry. It’s headed by Kristin Richter. She was previously the chief revenue officer for the Americas at Radisson. She [now] heads up our business travel and sales organization.

We’ve learned our lesson: There are some areas where we will innovate, and there are others where we should hire experts who know what they’re doing. We don’t need to rewrite the playbook. When it comes to our business travel strategy, we’ve mostly hired industry people who know how to do this and know the intricacies of what travel managers are looking for and the corporate [request-for-proposals] season and all the industry knowledge that is required to be successful.

BTN: Right now, 50 percent of your corporate business is coming from relocations. Are you planning to diversify your business travel demand?

Davidson: Extended stays are such a slam dunk of a value proposition. You can stay in a nice, branded, high-quality apartment for a few weeks. It just works really well, so extended stays relocations, corporate contracts for stays of, I’d say, 14 days or 30 days or more is the bread and butter of our business travel demand right now.

We have an interesting value proposition for business travelers, because we are better for longer but fewer trips. You’ll see some really impressive price points for properties that are well located and look great. That’s because of the technology we’ve built. It’s fast and efficient and easy to do everything on your phone. That’s really something [business travelers] appreciate on the ground … and it’s a really appealing value proposition to travel managers.

BTN: Before the pandemic, luxury properties might have promoted themselves as “high-touch.” After the pandemic, nobody wants to touch anybody. How did that benefit Sonder?

Davidson: The vast majority of our guests show up and go straight to their rooms. They’ll use the app in order to fulfill services. There’s a grand philosophical debate in hospitality, which is the white-glove service approach and the face-to-face interactions—the more traditional ways of thinking about high-quality service. The way we think about high-quality services, instead of a smile, it’s like an emoji in a gif. That might sound bizarre for some people, but for Gen-Z and Millennials, that’s actually more comfortable to them than face-to-face interaction. That’s a cognitive shift. Not every customer likes the way we do it, but a growing quantity of customers really love it that way.

BTN: Which kind of properties are you looking to add to your portfolio?

Davidson: There’s been a really big shift in our history. We used to work with owners of apartment buildings and figure out how we could bring a few of these units onto the Sonder platform. But for a few years now, we’ve focused on conversions of commercial buildings, ground-up construction, and repositioning of independent hotels. We [still] want to have apartments, [but] we also want to have hotels because not every trip requires a large space. A business trip where you’re only in town for a couple of meetings for a couple of days—you don’t need the whole kitchen and laundry room. Our view is that the best possible hospitality brand will have a series of options within the portfolio that can fit any specific trip.

We went public because this is the time to shine. Especially given that there’s so much change happening in the industry. That’s a large motivation for our public offering. Let’s go get the capital that we need to extend this concept fast because we know this is what the future of hospitality looks like.

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CNN analysts push for sharper domestic coronavirus travel restrictions on Americans

Posted on December 6, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

Media top headlines December 6

In media news today, a women’s group says ‘good riddance’ to Chris Cuomo after CNN firing, Brooke Baldwin calls on the liberal network to replace Cuomo with a woman, and an MSNBC anchor appears to downplay Bob Dole’s accomplishments because of his support for Trump.

CNN medical analysts expressed their dissatisfaction over the weekend with the measures being implemented by the Biden administration to fight potential winter spread of the coronavirus, arguing more stringent measures needed to be taken.

During separate appearances on the liberal network, Dr. Jonathan Reiner and Dr. Leana Wen each called for a domestic travel vaccine mandate to be implemented across the U.S., as well as a testing requirement; measures that go well beyond the restrictions President Biden announced last week.

BALTIMORE, MD OCTOBER 01: Dr. Leana Wen, is the new president of Planned Parenthood. She is photographed at the Baltimore City Health Department on Monday, October 01, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images) ____ Jonathan Reiner screen capture: CNN
(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images | CNN)

BONGINO RIPS BIDEN’S, DEMOCRATS’ HYPOCRISY ON COVID TRAVEL BAN SIMILAR TO TRUMP’S

Biden announced Thursday that travelers on all international flights bound for the U.S. would be required to have a negative coronavirus test within 24 hours of their departure, regardless of vaccination status. The announcement followed a travel ban on eight African countries announced earlier last week, which included Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana.

“There is a lot that’s already in the Biden winter strategy … I think that the right components are there, but not to the degree that they can be,” Wen told CNN host Boris Sanchez on Saturday. “For example, with international travel, moving the 72 hours of … pre-departure testing to 24 hours is good, but why not also ask people to self-quarantine and then test once they arrive?”

MEDIA HIT FOR ‘SOPHOMORIC AND RIDICULOUS’ TAKE ON BIDEN’S TRAVEL BAN AFTER CALLING TRUMP’S RESTRICTIONS RACIST

“When it comes to domestic travel, I do think that it’s really important to put into place a testing or vaccination requirement, meaning that everybody is required to be tested, but you can opt out of it if you are vaccinated,” she said. “And that’s because it’s not so much the travel itself that’s dangerous – actually if everybody is masked on planes or trains, it’s pretty safe, it’s more that if people are going between different regions, they could be carrying Covid-19 with them.”

Wen added that a testing or vaccination requirement would be key to reducing the spread of the coronavirus to different parts of the country.

President Biden speaks about the COVID-19 variant named omicron, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, in Washington. as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases listens. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AFRICAN JOURNALIST BLASTS BIDEN TRAVEL BAN: IT WAS BUILT ON A LIE

On Sunday, Reiner argued to CNN host Jim Acosta that a high level of daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. justified screening people for the virus within the country and not just for international travel.

“I love the idea of screening people who get on a plane to come to the U.S., but we should be able to incorporate that into our travel system here in the United States to prevent folks who are infected from going from, let’s say, parts of this country that have high viral threat to places maybe where there’s lower viral threat,” Reiner said. “One way to contain the virus is to test people the day of departure. And we have rapid tests that can do this. We just need the systems and the will to do it.”

An Orange Farm, South Africa, resident listens to a nurse after receiving his jab against COVID-19 Friday Dec. 3, 2021 at the Orange Farm multipurpose center. South Africa has accelerated its vaccination campaign a week after the discovery of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

He added that it was also a “mistake” for the Biden administration not to implement a vaccine mandate for travelers within the U.S.

“Vaccines are very popular in this country, 83% of adults have gotten at least one shot. So, by refusing to institute a travel vaccine mandate, basically the Biden administration is bowing to the 17% minority,” he said. “So, as I’ve been saying it’s basically the tail wagging the dog. We should have a travel vaccine requirement in the United States like our cousins in Canada have.”

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“It makes sense, not only to prevent transmission around this country, but another incentive for folks to get vaccinated,” Reiner said. “It’s going to take a strong measure to get these folks across the finish line. And maybe if they’re told they can’t fly without a vaccine, that will get some of them there. So I strongly favor that.”

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Latest news updates: Hong Kong to introduce contact tracing app in push to open up travel

Posted on November 26, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

What to watch in Europe today

Leke Oso Alabi in London

UK: The Bank of England’s chief economist Huw Pill gives a speech on the economic outlook, hosted by CBI North East on Friday. The Office for National Statistics releases excess winter mortality data for England and Wales, and Nationwide unveils its latest house price index. Figures for October published by the mortgage providers Nationwide and Halifax showed the strength of the UK’s housing market continued after the end of a tax discount, which was introduced at the height of the pandemic.

Switzerland: The alpine nation publishes GDP figures for the third quarter. Switzerland’s economy grew by 1.8 per cent in the second quarter of the year, nearly erasing the economic damage done by the spread of Covid-19.

France: Europe’s second largest economy releases consumer confidence figures on Friday. Confidence across the continent dropped below its pre-pandemic level in November, reflecting the impact of rising Covid-19 infections, tighter restrictions and concerns over patchy economic growth.

Markets: Asia Pacific markets slipped across the board on Friday, as a holiday in the US on Thursday left investors to fret over the emergence of a new variant of Covid-19 and the resurgence of cases in Europe. FTSE 100 and Euro Stoxx 50 futures were both down more than 2 per cent ahead of the open.

Hong Kong to introduce mainland-style contact tracing app

Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong

Hong Kong will introduce a mainland Chinese-style contact-tracing app by next month as part of its efforts for a final push for quarantine-free travel to the mainland.

The new health code system requiring real name registration is also expected to be linked to an existing risk-exposure monitoring app in the city called LeaveHomeSafe, which has sparked privacy concerns among residents over the collection and usage of personal data by authorities.

Hong Kong’s number two official, chief secretary John Lee, also said on Thursday evening that mainland Chinese officials agreed the city had met the basic conditions for reopening the border at talks in Shenzhen earlier that day.

Resuming quarantine-free travel has been a focus of the Hong Kong government for months and officials have said that reopening with China is a pre-requisite for any relaxation of the city’s strict international travel curbs.

Macau, which has already reopened its borders with the mainland, has also said it could resume quarantine-free travel with Hong Kong once the city reopens its borders with China.

Virus concerns push Asia Pacific stocks lower

William Langley in Hong Kong

Asia Pacific equities slipped on Friday as investors reacted to the news that a new coronavirus variant with “worrying” mutations was spreading in southern Africa.

The biggest declines were in Japan, where the Nikkei 225 fell as much as 2.4 per cent and the broader Topix lost 1.8 per cent. Japanese Stocks were also hit by a 0.3 per cent month-on-month increase in Tokyo core CPI, which, while still small compared with the surging inflation in other parts of the world, was the biggest increase in the city since August last year.

The stock market declines reflected global concerns about a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in southern Africa, which Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist at the World Health Organisation, said had “a number of worrying mutations in the spike protein”.

Concerns of further monetary tightening in the US also abounded, after a measure of inflation followed closely by the Federal Reserve posted its biggest year-on-year jump in October since the 1990s. Minutes of the bank’s November meeting also revealed on Wednesday that some committee members advocated for the central bank to accelerate tightening.

The news pushed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 2 per cent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 down 1.4 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi down 1 per cent. China’s CSI 300 also lost more than 0.6 per cent.

UMC to pay Micron undisclosed fee to resolve trade secret theft case

William Langley in Hong Kong

Taiwanese chipmaker United Microelectronics Corporation will pay US group Micron Technology an undisclosed fee to settle a legal dispute between the two companies that cut to the heart of US-China tensions.

UMC was fined $60m in October last year after pleading guilty to US charges of stealing trade secrets and sharing them with China-based Fujian Jinhua during a collaboration with the Chinese company.

The case drew attention to Taiwanese technology companies, which are essential to the global supply of semiconductors and gadgets, but are also highly reliant on China. The companies were pushed to decouple themselves from China during the heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies that began under the presidency of Donald Trump.

The dispute stems from 2016, when UMC signed a deal with Fujian Jinhua, part of which included provisions for the Taiwanese company to help it boost its production capacity. In October last year, UMC admitted to US courts that it had hired engineers from Micron in 2015 that later worked on the project and shared confidential information from Micron with the Chinese group.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, the two companies said that the payment of an undisclosed fee from UMC would see both sides withdraw their legal complaints against each other.

Australian stocks slip following US holiday

William Langley in Hong Kong

Stocks in Australia and futures in Japan and Hong Kong dropped on Friday morning, with Asia Pacific markets getting off to a weak start to the day following a quiet Thanksgiving holiday in the US.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell as much as 0.4 per cent in early trading, while futures for Japan’s Topix and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.1 and 0.3 per cent respectively.

Markets in the US were closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday and will run a shortened session on Friday. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 gauge closed up 0.4 per cent as traders weighed up the likelihood of monetary tightening following strong US economic data released during the previous session and the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting.

Data released on Wednesday showed that US weekly jobless claims had reached their lowest point since 1969 and that a measure of inflation followed closely by the Fed had posted its biggest year-on-year jump in October since the 1990s.

The Australian dollar slipped overnight.

UK and France clash over response to Channel migrant tragedy

Victor Mallet in Paris, Robert Wright in London and Anna Gross in Calais

Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron were on Thursday struggling to co-ordinate a coherent response to the deaths of 27 migrants who had drowned trying to cross the English Channel from France the previous day.

The UK and French governments, hampered by deteriorating relations since Brexit, blamed criminal networks of people-traffickers for the tragedy and vowed to crack down on the gangs as would-be asylum seekers risked their lives in small boats.

“We need stronger European co-operation on this, given that France is a transit country,” the French president said during a visit to Croatia.

On Thursday, a further 62 migrants reached the UK in small boats, while France stopped another 30.

Tensions continued between the UK and France yesterday with Priti Patel, the British home secretary, saying the onus was on the French government to stop people crossing the Channel. “I’ve offered to work with France to put officers on the ground and do absolutely whatever is necessary to secure the area so that vulnerable people do not risk their lives by getting into unseaworthy boats,” she told the House of commons.

Southern African countries put on UK travel red list over Covid variant

Donato Paolo Mancini, Oliver Barnes and Sarah Neville in London

The UK will place six southern African countries back on its red list of travel restrictions, after an apparent surge in cases of a heavily mutated coronavirus variant caused alarm among global health officials.

Travellers returning from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be forced to quarantine for 10 days at a government facility from midday on Friday, government officials said.

Direct flights from the six countries will be banned from midday on Friday until hotel quarantine is up and running from 4am on Sunday.

The rule change follows mounting concern by scientists over the B.1.1.529 Sars-Cov-2 variant’s ability to evade the vaccines and transmit faster than the Delta variant. The strain, first identified in Botswana, is believed to be behind a resurgence in Covid cases in South Africa over the past week.

What to watch in Asia today

William Langley in Hong Kong

Chinese tech earnings: Food delivery company Meituan and short video platform Pinduoduo report earnings today. Meituan had to swallow a Rmb3.4bn ($530m) fine after being found guilty of monopolistic practices in October. Despite the huge fine, some analysts say the company got off lightly.

Markets: US stock markets were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving. Australian stocks fell in early trading, while futures in Japan were flat.

Data: Markets could be affected by Australia’s October retail sales figures and Tokyo’s inflation figures, both reported today. Retail sales rose for the first time since May in September, and are forecast to have accelerated in October. ANZ also reports consumer confidence figures for New Zealand today.

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Michigan couple push limits to see what grapes can grow on Beaver Island

Posted on November 7, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

Greg Tasker
| Special to The Detroit News

St. James, Beaver Island — Not far from the village of wood-frame buildings that hug the natural harbor of this remote, mostly forested island, Adam Kendall and Kate Leese have planted a couple of acres of red and white wine grapes, with the dream of eventually opening a winery and tasting room here.

On the surface, their dream might seem as far-flung as this island in the northern waters of Lake Michigan, but the couple has planted roots on a 120-acre tract deep in the woods of the island, the third-largest in the state. Their planting of 2,100 vines on a fallow field this past spring came after their own extensive research and consultations with others in Michigan’s flourishing wine industry.

“It feels like a place somewhere along the road where you could stop and have a glass of wine with new friends,” said Kate Leese, 35, who grew up in Charlevoix, a resort town across the lake, about 30 miles away. “Our goal is to have that kind of place that brings people together.”

Wine grapes have been cultivated by others on the island in the past but not for commercial use, the couple says. They’ll be the first to bottle and sell their wine on the island as well as the mainland.

It’s not hard to imagine that kind of operation happening here, on the open lawn behind a turn-of-the-century farmhouse the couple is restoring. Beyond the clearing, where the young vines are sprouting from grow tubes, hardwoods frame the horizon. Apple trees, remnants of another farming era, and sugar maples, exploding in fiery colors, dot the bucolic landscape.

“We have wanted to plant a vineyard, but it was something that we thought about doing 20 years from now, in the future,” said Leese, who has a background in biochemistry and who, like her husband, is passionate about wine. “So many things came together for us in the last year.”

Those things included finding a property on Beaver Island after a random stop in fall 2019, in the wake of a boat trip up the northwestern Michigan coastline. They were ready for a more stationary existence after spending three years on the road, pulling a renovated Airstream around the continental United States, working remotely.

“Almost immediately after we pulled into the marina here, we knew this was the level of quiet we were looking for,” said Kendall, 37, a Jackson native who has a background as an attorney. “At night, there’s almost complete silence here. There’s no light pollution. You can hear every car (if one goes by). It’s the kind of place we had been looking for as our next spot.”

Their transient life has included picking up and moving every three or four days, seeking out less-traveled parks and locales. During that time on the road, they left their former jobs and created their own company, the Kinetics Company, an emergency management consulting firm. They have lived in more than 220 places and continued to travel even after finding their niche on Beaver Island. It took them another year to secure the former farm property.

Part of an archipelago, Beaver Island is home to about 600 year-round residents. It’s the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, where everybody waves as they pass one another, where neighbors pitch in to help one another and where everyone does what they can to help the community.

Although thousands of visitors arrive by plane and ferry each year, the 56-square-mile island — about twice the size of Manhattan — retains a sense of remoteness. Most businesses cater to the locals and tourists who want a slower-paced vacation. There are small inns and other types of lodging, as well as restaurants, a brewery and small shops. Paved roads are few and so are the amenities most tourists would find on a destination like Mackinac Island — there’s not a single fudge shop.

“You come to the island to unplug and disconnect,” Leese said.

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Unique challenges

Establishing a winery on an island in Michigan, especially one so far north, is an anomaly in the Great Lakes State. Michigan is home to about 170 wineries, most of them clustered on the peninsulas outside Traverse City or in the southwest corner of the state. The closest designated wine-growing region — Tip of the Mitt — lies across Lake Michigan on the mainland, stretching from just south of Charlevoix to the Straits.

Farther north than other Michigan wine regions, the Tip of the Mitt faces unique challenges, including colder and windier winters. The grape varietals found in other parts of the state — chardonnay, riesling and pinot noir, for example — are generally not grown in the region. More common are cold-hardy grapes like Marquette, Traminette and Frontenac.

Beaver Island — 30 miles from the mainland — sits in a microclimate, presenting its own set of challenges and advantages. Winter, of course, is long and cold. The hope is the lingering ice around the island in the early spring will keep the vines dormant. The warmer and longer-than-usual fall because of the surrounding warmer water will help grapes ripen. A breeze blows constantly, helping keep mildew and mold at bay. Cloud cover is minimal, offering lots of sunny days throughout the growing season.

“I don’t think Beaver Island would be colder than Petoskey or Minnesota,” said Paolo Sabbatini, an associate professor of horticulture at Michigan State University, referencing the planting of cold-hardy grapes that have fared well in those regions. “If they use super hardy hybrid grapes, I think they will have a good chance to produce grapes on the island.”

Instead, cultivating cold tender vinifera could be problematic because of the bitter winter, he says, noting, however, that there are techniques to protect the vines in the winter, including burying vine canes underground to provide insulation. Extreme and persistent freezes during winter months can damage or destroy vines. In moderate winters, the lake effect snow blankets the vines, protecting them, or they need to be protected by the soil.

“It’s like a blanket to protect the vines. It’s a technique used in a lot of places around the world and also in Michigan, especially in the southwest,” he says. “I wish them the best of luck. It’s a very cool idea in a very beautiful place.”

Experimenting with different root stock and clones, the couple has planted cabernet franc, pinot noir, riesling, Traminette and Noiret, as well as zweigelt, an Austrian grape, and pinotage, a grape from South Africa, to name a few. Their hopes for pinotage — a grape not common in Michigan — are buoyed by an Ohio State University study that showed the grape to have a higher annual freezing tolerance.

There are other elements in their favor. The top of their soil was laden with high levels of organic matter. The property is a mix of clay, sand and limestone. Nitrogen and pH levels are perfect for grape growing, the couple says.

“We are trying to push the boundaries of what might grow here,” said Kendall, who has experimented with making wine and ginger beer, even while on the road.

‘The devil is in the details’

Harvesting, of course, is a few years away. It takes three to four years for vines to mature. The couple clipped the vine flowers in the spring and will continue to do so over the next few years to strengthen the plants’ roots. An unexpected late spring frost did cause some vine damage, but most of the plants are showing promise.

“The devil is in the details when it comes to wine,” said Douglas Olson, a winemaker and viticulturist who works with wineries on the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas outside Traverse City. “When you taste a great wine, that is a very well calculated process. All the details were covered to their greatest extent.”

He’s referring to such details as soil makeup, weather patterns, historical data and planting the right grapes, “really matching what is best for your site.”

“Cover those details in the beginning stages of a vineyard, and you’ll be able to reap the reward of that,” he said.

“The story behind this is fascinating. If you were to jump forward, if you could get a product out there and have someone in New York or Chicago taste a pinot noir grown on an island in Lake Michigan, that’s got to be the coolest bottle of wine you could have in your cellar … a lot of people would geek out about that, but it’s got to be a good wine to begin with.”

Kendall and Leese will trellis the vines in the spring and evaluate their success with their initial planting. More vines will be planted — their goal is to cultivate six acres. Production buildings and a tasting room will be built eventually. They already have a name: Antho Vineyards, a reference to the first sign of color change in red varietals.

“We’re not going to be a big winery. That’s not our goal,” said Kendall, who hopes to produce about 1,200 cases of wine per year and export to the mainland. “We’re focused on quality from this particular piece of land, even if that means lower volume.”

The road ahead is long, but the once-nomadic couple is committed. Their Airstream, transported by barge to the island and equipped with a wood-burning stove, rests not far from the vineyard. It’s their home as they renovate the farmhouse.

“We’ve been addicted to change for a good part of our lives,” Leese said. “During the pandemic, all our work travel stopped. For the most part, our travels these days are to the outer islands. It means we can be in the vineyards morning and night. It’ll be nice to see the vines change and to watch them grow.”

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COP26: Boris Johnson to travel to UN and White House to push for climate action ahead of crunch summit | Climate News

Posted on September 19, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit President Joe Biden next week in a bid to drum up support ahead of the COP26 Summit on climate change.

Mr Johnson will travel to New York for a meeting at the UN on Monday, before travelling to Washington to meet Mr Biden at the White House for the first time for discussions on climate, COVID and international security.

It is hoped the meetings will help galvanise momentum in the lead up to COP26 – crunch climate talks the UK is hosting in Glasgow in November.

Speaking ahead of the visit, the prime minister said: “World leaders have a small window of time left to deliver on their climate commitments ahead of COP26.

“My message to those I meet this week will be clear: future generations will judge us based on what we achieve in the coming months.”

While in New York Mr Johnson will make a speech at the UN General Assembly and meet a group of world leaders to discuss actions that can be taken to help mitigate the impact of global warming on developing countries.

Around 100 world leaders are confirmed to attend COP26, which represent a once in a generation opportunity to make progress to keep global warming below 1.5C.

The prime minister’s trip to Washington is his first since Mr Biden took office.

He will also meet Vice President Kamala Harris and senior members of the US House of Representatives and Senate.

These discussions will be an important opportunity to build on the climate commitments made by leaders, including the Mr Johnson and Mr Biden, at the G7 Summit in Cornwall.

At the meeting in June, the G7 agreed to take action to tackle climate change and drive green growth around the world, including by mobilising $100 billion in climate finance and phasing out the use of coal internationally.

They will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

At a virtual meeting of G7 leaders, Mr Johnson, President Biden and other leaders agreed to work together on a collective international response.

This work will be bolstered by the UN Security Council Resolution, driven by the UK, US and France, which calls for urgent humanitarian access to Afghanistan.

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The UK has committed £286m in aid to Afghanistan this year.

Earlier this week the UK, US and Australia announced the formation of a new defence pact – AUKUS – to promote stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 6.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.

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U.S. lawmakers push Biden to lift Canadian travel restrictions

Posted on September 18, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON —
Four U.S. senators on Friday asked U.S. President Joe Biden to lift restrictions that have barred travel by Canadians across the northern U.S. border since March 2020.

Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Jon Tester of Montana and independent Angus King of Maine asked Biden to allow Canadians vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel to the United States before October. The border state senators said in a letter the restrictions have led to “economic and emotional strain in our communities.”

The senators added: “A plan with some indication of when your administration would feel comfortable lifting border restrictions based on public health data would provide clarity to businesses and families along the northern border.”

They also noted that Canadians can fly to the United States. “We struggle to understand the public health rationale for the disparate treatment in modes of travel,” the senators wrote.

The White House did not immediately comment on Friday, but White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said on Wednesday that given the Delta variant of the coronavirus, “we will maintain the existing travel restrictions at this point.”

U.S. officials and travel industry executives say the White House is set to renew the restrictions before the latest extension expires on Sept. 21.

In August, the United States again extended restrictions closing its land borders with Canada and Mexico to nonessential travel such as tourism despite Ottawa’s decision to open its border to vaccinated Americans.

Canada on Aug. 9 began allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors for nonessential travel.

The United States has continued to extend the extraordinary restrictions on Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis since March 2020, when they were imposed to address the spread of COVID-19.

The U.S. land border restrictions do not bar U.S. citizens from returning home.

The United States separately bars most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

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U.S. Lawmakers Push Biden to Lift Canadian Travel Restrictions | Top News

Posted on September 18, 2021 | by getsetntravel | Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Four U.S. senators on Friday asked President Joe Biden to lift restrictions that have barred travel by Canadians across the northern U.S. border since March 2020.

They also noted that Canadians can fly to the United States. “We struggle to understand the public health rationale for the disparate treatment in modes of travel,” the senators wrote.

U.S. officials and travel industry executives say the White House is set to renew the restrictions before the latest extension expires on Sept. 21.

Canada on Aug. 9 began allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors for nonessential travel.

The United States has continued to extend the extraordinary restrictions on Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis since March 2020, when they were imposed to address the spread of COVID-19.

The U.S. land border restrictions do not bar U.S. citizens from returning home.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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