‘Watershed Moment.’ Miami Welcomes End of COVID Travel Restrictions on 33 Countries

Miami’s tourism economy has been slowly recovering since coronavirus lock downs ended, but has been missing a key component: foreign tourists from most of Europe, Brazil, China, India and more. On Monday, Nov. 8, travelers from 33 countries will see U.S. coronavirus travel restrictions lifted for fully vaccinated people — and the optimism and expectations in Miami’s tourism community are high.

“We can’t see a complete recovery until the full international market is back in Miami,” said Rolando Aedo, the COO of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This is truly a watershed moment.

“This supports our broad effort to lure back the international market,” he continued. “And I want to not just bring international travel back to what it was, I want to bring it back even bigger, just like we’ve successfully done with expanding our domestic market.”

The Trump administration banned non- U.S. citizens from entering starting with China in January 2020, which extended to most of Europe and several other countries in the months to follow. Any non- U.S. citizens who had been in those countries within the past 14 days also were not allowed to come to the U.S.

“I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of international air travel to the United States,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The restrictions are now ending for travelers who show proof of full vaccination in the 26 Schengen countries in Europe, including Germany, France and Spain, as well as the United Kingdom, Ireland, China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Iran. Children under 18 and people with certain medical issues will be exempt from the vaccine requirement.

Foreign tourism is hugely important for Miami’s economy: in 2019, 7 million, or 30%, of Miami’s tourists were international, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau. What’s more, they stay longer and spend more money than domestic tourists.

Miami International Airport is already up to 90% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels largely thanks to domestic flights, and is expecting to move a record number of passengers once restrictions lift on Monday. Of the top 20 countries that MIA most receives flights from, six were under travel restrictions — Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Currently, the number of available seats for flights headed to MIA for October-December is 10% higher than it was during that period in 2019.

“That tells you that the airlines expect the demand to be there,” said Greg Chin, the communication director for MIA. “We expect a significant boost now that those countries are allowed to come. Now there’s more light at the end of the tunnel for travel.”

MIA and Lufthansa Airlines are holding an event on the tarmac on Monday to welcome the return of the Miami to Munich route.

The travel restrictions are lifting for most of Europe when just days prior the W.H.O. declared that Europe was again at the “epicenter” of the pandemic, with Germany recording nearly 34,000 cases on Nov. 4, its most cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic as the Delta variant spreads across the region and vaccination rates slow down.

Still, hopes in Miami’s tourism community remain high, even after the Delta variant caused a slow down in travel in the United States.

Wendy Kallergis, the president and CEO of the Greater Miami & the Beaches Hotel Association, said that hotels in Miami-Dade have been doing well in 2021 thanks to domestic tourists, with the exception of a downturn during August and September due to the Delta variant.

“International tourists are incredibly important, it’s very exciting. This is really a gift that it’s opening up on the 8th,” she said. “We are just about back to normal Miami tourism, it’s not 100%, but it’s very close. As long as everyone does the right thing and follows protocols, I’m very optimistic we’ll be back to normal.”

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