COVID-19 and international travel restrictions: the geopolitics of health and tourism

Abstract

In an effort to contain the advancement of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many states have introduced unprecedented peacetime measures ranging from border closures and travel bans to the suspension of visa exemptions, as well as internal mobility restrictions, including full lockdowns and quarantine for incoming passengers. Nevertheless, coercive measures such as sanctions continue to be applied during the COVID-19 outbreak and have largely undermined sanctioned countries' capacity to respond to the pandemic. The latter has prompted renewed discussion of the humanitarian costs of this frequently deployed foreign policy tool against the civilian populations in the target countries. The inconsistent application of border controls and travel restrictions by states also raise questions as to the politics of pandemics and how they fulfill the International Health Regulations. Framed from a geopolitical perspective, this study aims to discuss the power of sanctions regime in relation to state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper also discusses the degree of selectivity of border restrictions by major global tourism destinations. While the COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a health crisis, its implications are economically and geo-politically far-reaching with corresponding implications for the framing of travel and tourism within humanitarian and political contexts.

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“…Over and above valuing the monetary losses, efforts are to made to dive deep into tangible and intangible social impacts happening in the communities too. Many researchers have reported different field shreds of evidence of sudden growth in conflicts and geopolitical tensions around the world since the COVID-19 outbreak (Burke; Chetcuti et al;Polo;Seyfi et al;Wilkinson et al, 2020). The sources of these ethnic conflicts can be political, social, economic and religious, which is already deeply rooted before and further boosted during COVID-19 (Burke, 2020; "Ethnic conflict", n.d.).…”

“…In the same fashion, new geopolitical tensions have developed as countries announced emergency border closures, travel restrictions or bans, international sanctions, strict visa regulations, lockdowns, quarantine rules and other measures for the sake of controlling pandemic spread (EU Parliament; Seyfi et al, 2020). Even before the global pandemic, geopolitics have negatively impacted the growth of numerous tourism destinations, it was mostly by the geopolitical tensions between countries in the West, Middle East, and Asia (Bremmer, 2020;Butler, 2019;Rowen, 2016;Timothy, 2019).…”

“…Besides, the role played by the tourism sector for implementing the state's geopolitical programs of Chinese authorities and how tourism has been used as a tool for crafting foreign policies and territorial projects are also issues affecting the industry. In the same manner, US's tourism is being affected by its restrictions on citizens' visit to countries like Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen (Seyfi et al, 2020). To an extent, the current geopolitical anxieties on tourism are affected by primaeval race geographies and recent developments of geo-economic relations (Mostafanezhad et al, 2020).…”

“…Belt and Road or One Belt One Road is a global infrastructure development initiative of China, which promises a new platform for extending their geo-economic relations to become a global power (EU Parliament, 2020). In respect of the recent COVID-19 lead global economic crisis, more geopolitical tensions have emerged between global powers, nations or regions (EU Parliament; Mostafanezhad et al;Seyfi et al, 2020). Many countries have adopted Travel Bubble initiatives to reopen the borders and resume controlled travels between predetermined countries or regions.…”

“…Similarly, India has initiated new bilateral travel arrangements with more than 21 countries. Nevertheless, there exist uneven political geography of sanctions and policies to achieve political goals (Seyfi et al, 2020).…”