In February, we just heard about a deadly virus that arrived in South America and the risk of affecting our tourism industry, but I think that anybody took it very seriously and we thought it was another minor seasonal disease from this busy modern world.
Finally, on February 21, the new case of Coronavirus was registered in Ecuador and we realized that this disease was worldwide causing thousands of human deaths every day.
Then in less than 2 weeks, the country collapsed as a consequence of this invisible enemy. The president of Ecuador declared a national emergency and under the state of exception law, the country was militarized and all tourist operations were cancelled, including domestic and international flights.
That was when we knew that we would be in indefinite confinement and we should be at home with the family. As happened around the world, hundreds of businesses went bankrupt and many people lost their jobs.
Not being able to leave, we live moments of intense despair, with the desire to know that all this was just a bad dream.
March, April, May and June just passed without major changes and all at home without a job. Fortunately, at the end of June, the national government decided to relax the restrictions and take a step towards the economic reactivation of the country. However, all schools in Ecuador ended up classes virtually.
Everything started to reactivate little by little except for international tourism since the realities of each country in the world are different and thousands of travellers decided not to travel for at least 2 years. This complicated the panorama for Ecuador’s Tourism Companies.
Currently, we have seen with pleasure that local tourism is gaining strength and it is seen as a business opportunity for travel agencies and tour operators in Ecuador to be able to survive while foreigners tourists come.
Finally, on September 15, the government of Ecuador decided to change the campaign known as I take care of myself and now it is our responsibility to protect ourselves and not allow this deadly virus to spread.
Ecuador is now ready to host visitors from all over the world and we are waiting for you to plan your vacations in Ecuador as soon as possible. However, this is already new normality that we must get used to and live with it for a long time.
Currently, all tour operators in Ecuador are following all the biosafety protocols in an efficient way, guaranteeing all visitors safety.
Since Ecuador received the SAFE TRAVELS certification, being one of the first in the world to reopen to tourism as a safe destination.