Dear Travelers,
As a travel agency, our daily lives revolve around everything travel – talking through trip planning with you, dreaming of our own next adventures, and reminiscing on past experiences all over the world. We love celebrating with you as we plan your honeymoons, creatively problem solving to keep everyone happy on your family trips, and sharing the joyful stories and photos with you on your return home. We embrace juggling different time zones as our phone calls span country borders, as do our personal and professional relationships with hoteliers, cruise line representatives, and tour operators all over the globs. And even when our days don’t span the usual 9 to 5 (hello flight cancellations!). we still wake up every morning thankful for our part in planning your happy travel memories.
Travel is both our careers and our passions, so believe us when we say the words that break our hearts – it’s time to stop traveling (for now).
Right now we are facing an unprecedented event in the form of the pandemic coronavirus COVID-19, an event that has already deeply hurt our friends in China, South Korea, Italy, and beyond. As a company, we are responsible for the enjoyment and safety of our travelers, wherever they may be. And as global citizens, we have a duty to stop the spread of COVID-19 before it affects more of our friends, family, and communities. With a disease that can be spread before symptoms begin showing, our only course of action is to try to reduce the number of contacts we make and flatten the curve – and that is best done by staying at home.
So we humbly ask that our wonderful clients stop traveling – for now. We know as much as anyone how difficult this is, but we stand by our actions – our team has already postponed our personal travels this month to Japan, Mexico, and Italy so as to be on-call for our clients and to do our part in social distancing. We’re all in this together, and will only get through this by banding together as one global community.
So stop traveling, but don’t stop dreaming – this too shall pass, and we look forward to the future when we can once again help you to explore this beautiful, wild, and unpredictable world of ours. We’ll be here waiting for you once it’s safe again to travel.
Stay safe and #flattenthecurve,
The River Oaks Travel Team
Looking for more information on COVID-19?
Further Reading:
- World Health Organization Risk Assessment
- US Department of State Country Information
- IATA’s Travel Restrictions By Country
- Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health Map
- Worldometer Coronavirus by the Numbers
River Oaks Travel Blogs:
