Vaccine Tourism and Covid-Related Holiday Guilt

For the past week, my wife and I explored several islands in Turks & Caicos. The island has a fast track to vaccines thanks, ironically, to its post-colonial ties to its “mother country” of the UK. As a result, the government is actually afraid of “vaccine tourism”, where foreign travelers come to TCI to get vaccinated.

As we travelled, I kept thinking of friends across the world who are still in lockdown or waiting to be vaccinated. And I felt guilty. If you were lucky enough to get vaccinated and can afford the time and budget to take your first trip like us, maybe you understand this guilt. If you haven’t, one day soon you will.

The good news is that when you do travel for the first time, you’ll see the same stories of resilience that we did. Entrepreneurs working to create new experiences. Restaurants that pivoted and endured until the visitors returned. Airports that remain eerily empty, but still operational. Our flight wasn’t full, but it wasn’t empty either. Travel, in other words, will be back. And you will get to take that first post-pandemic trip, even if it still seems a long way away. When you do, I have just one piece of advice to share: try not to feel too guilty about it.