KITCHENER -- Most people decided to stay close to home this year, choosing to cancel or delay non-essential travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anna Collings, who lives in Stratford and retired recently, was planning to take multiple trips this year.
"A mother-daughter trip to Portugal, it was going to be 10 days and we were really excited about it, but that didn't happen due to COVID," Collings said.
South-Central Ontario CAA said most people have cancelled non-essential travel in 2020.
"The travel industry is very slow," CAA government relations director Elliott Silverstein said.
Right now, Global Affairs Canada has a level-three travel advisory in effect, meaning Canadians are asked to avoid non-essential travel to all countries, including additional advisories for countries with variants of the virus like the U.K. and South Africa.
The government said if you must travel, you will likely have trouble obtaining services, including consulates. People also need to quarantine or "face severe penalties" upon returning.
"As a result, our travel insure, we're not covering any COVID-related issues, much like a lot of the industry is doing right now," Silverstein said.
Travel isn't advised, but it's still legal.
"There are situations that are going to require people to travel no matter what," Silverstein said. "There may be certain family circumstances that require that nonetheless, and that's different from the people that are just simply looking to get away during a very cold season."
CAA isn't actively screening customers or asking if they have essential reasons to travel. Instead, Silverstein said they're focused on educating people to make appropriate decisions.
"They may choose to take that risk and, if they do, then hopefully they remain safe while they're travelling," Silverstein said.
Collings said she'll wait until she's able to get a vaccine.
"I am a little nervous to travel at any point," she said "There's a new strain of virus as well, so that puts a whole new twist on things."
