When Cold is Hot

With vaccinations on the rise, travel is really starting to pick up again.  What's hot these days?  Trips to cold weather places like these:

Alaska

Maybe because it's domestic, but there's been lots of interest in Alaska recently.  Alaska is always in high demand and the loss of tourism to Alaska during the pandemic has devastated the tourist driven cities.  Complicating things has been that Canada has barred Americans from coming into the country. And that means that most of the cruise ships have been unable to cruise because they are required to stop in at least one Canadian port (due to the Jones Act).  So two solutions:

• Small ships, like those operated by Uncruise are exempt from the Jones Act and so small ship cruising has gotten popular.
• Congress recently passed a law which temporarily bypasses the Jones Act requirements. The large cruise ship operators have already started to advertise.

Antarctic

Also popular are expedition type trips to the Antarctic.  Hurtigruten,  Atlas Ocean Voyages, Silversea all operate upscale, small ship adventures on ships specifically designed for the Antarctic.  These trips generally include Patagonia, the Chilean Fjords, the Falklands and the Antarctica.  Hurtigruten, for example features scientific lectures, expeditions in purpose built Zodiac boats as well a luxurious cabins and amenities.

Driving popularity of these trips are: 

• Small ships mean less people and less infectious disease transmission potential
• Outdoors focused
• Pent up demand for bucket list types of trips

So what's hot really is cold

So cold weather destinations are suddenly a hot travel market!  Shortly, Europe will be opening up and the travel world will get back closer to normal.  Or so we hope.