What does the rest of 2022 have in store when it comes to travel?
That was the seemingly clairvoyant question The Independent’s travel team attempted to answer during a live virtual event on 20 April.
In the turbulent first four months, which saw the wide-scale shutdown of borders in response to the Omicron variant, following by a swift reopening in many parts of the world, this year has already demonstrated that the status quo can change in the blink of an eye.
Looking ahead, travel correspondent Simon Calder and travel editor Helen Coffey tackled the three Cs of travel – Chaos, Covid and Climate – during an hour-long discussion and Q&A, looking at whether the flight cancellations and long airport queues seen this Easter will continue; whether Covid travel restrictions are here to stay; and whether slow travel is the way to go in the year ahead.
Blitzing through a range of audience questions, topics spanned post-Brexit stays in Spain, Irish passports, the cost of fuel, electric planes, Covid testing in the US and travelling east amid the war in Ukraine. But there was also hope for the future amid the uncertainties that still plague the travel industry; asked where he was most looking forward to visiting in 2022, Simon said: “Frankly, almost anywhere”.
If you want to ask Simon a travel question, he runs weekly ‘Ask Me Anythings’ where he answers as many questions as possible live.
Watch back the full event in the video below.
