Credit: AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Apparently, it’s how we’re all going to be doing vacations for a while.

The coronavirus pandemic has, understandably, put a bit of a damper on global travel. Even in countries where there aren’t national travel bans in place, people are extremely reluctant to hop a plane, at least for leisure purposes. This is a problem for nations that rely heavily on tourism as a source of income. Singapore, one of the most tourist-friendly nations in the world, is hemorrhaging money due to travel restrictions. There’s gotta be some way to let tourists go on their merry journeys without endangering public health. Well, we might have one possible avenue: travel bubbles.

The travel bubble is a concept cooked up by social mobility researchers. Basically, two or more countries that have managed to get a handle on their respective coronavirus pandemics open their borders exclusively to each other for the express purpose of sending and receiving tourists. People in the bubble can come and go as they please without risk of new infection from a country that doesn’t have all its ducks in a row. Of course, making this happen requires good faith between the countries, as well as a solid record of testing, tracing, and quarantining. If one country still has a viral problem, others ain’t gonna team up with it (which may unfortunately mean it’ll take a while before the US can get in on this plan).

Credit: Reuters

One of the first groups of countries to draw up plans for a travel bubble is Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand usually gets a lot of tourists from Australia, so their presence is definitely missed. As long as the proper protocol is followed and new infections are kept at zero, this partnership could pave the way for numerous other countries to start their own travel bubble partnerships. Sadly, this does mean you may be limited in your vacation options for a while, but hey, it beats staying at home.