Starting in August 2021, Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Travel TrackerBloomberg’s Covid-19 Travel Tracker was monitoring the state of pandemic travel among 70 key business and leisure destinations. The tracker is no longer being updated as of Dec. 20, 2021. You can continue to read about the Covid-19 vaccine rollout here, and on global Covid-19 cases here.
We have preserved our full data and ratings methodology below:
To inform readers about where they can safely go and what they can do when they get there, Bloomberg scored each destination in three categories: travel restrictions, city openness and city vaccination rates. From those scores an overall destination score was calculated. Data and scores were updated each Friday.
Cities were selected for the Tracker based on the availability of local vaccinations data, their status as top business or leisure destinations as identified by American Express Global Business Travel and the World Tourism Organization, respectively, as well as other editorial considerations.
Travel Restriction Score
Travel restriction data were sourced from travel-data provider Sherpa. Each city-to-city travel combination was scored on a 10-point scale. Three factors were taken into account: ease of entry (35%), level of quarantine requirements (35%) and testing requirements on or before arrival (30%). A score of zero was given if entry was not permitted.
Cities were grouped into three categories based on their score: “less restrictive"—6.66 or higher; “moderately restrictive"—3.33 to 6.65; and “more restrictive"—below 3.33. When no specific city-to-city travel combination is selected, the average score of all incoming combinations to a destination city is used. Destination cities were assigned their national travel restriction rules. The Travel Restriction Score was the only component of this tracker that updated daily.
Travel-restriction score assumed the traveler is fully vaccinated and a citizen or permanent resident of the point of departure. Therefore, only the entry rules for the destination were considered, since the traveler was assumed to be returning to their own country.
City Openness Score
Local Bloomberg reporters were gathering data on the openness of each city tracked. They were checking government and private-sector rules and guidelines relating to a uniform set of activities common for leisure and business travelers. Each city was scored on a 10-point scale. Greater weight was assigned to how open dining, shopping and public-meeting activities were, as well as whether a nighttime curfew was imposed.
Cities were grouped into three categories based on their score: “more open"—7.5 or higher; “moderately open” —5 to 7.4; and “less open"—below 5.
Local Vaccination Score
Vaccination rates for each city were compiled by Bloomberg, or, where available, sourced from relevant state, province or national agencies.
Each city was scored on a 10-point scale. Scores were calculated based on the number of fully and partially vaccinated people, with fully vaccinated weighted more heavily.
Cities were grouped in three categories based on their score: “more vaccinated"—7.5 or higher, which roughly corresponds to having more than 70% of the population fully vaccinated; “moderately vaccinated"—5 to 7.4—which roughly corresponds to having more than 50% of the population fully vaccinated; and “less vaccinated"—below 5.
In the case of Nairobi, only data on fully vaccinated people was available and used for scoring. In the case of Sydney, only overall doses were available, so Bloomberg calculated the percent of the population that those doses would be able to fully vaccinate and used that for scoring.
For Bangkok, city-level data was used prior to October 8; since then data for a wider urban region was used.
Where a local vaccination rate was not directly available, Bloomberg calculated it using the relevant population estimate from the local or national statistics agency, or from the United Nations or International Monetary Fund.
Vaccination rates were for the city level except for: .
Overall Score
An overall score was then calculated for each city, as a weighted composite of the three sub-scores described above, with extra emphasis on travel restrictions. Each city’s overall travel experience was then scored on a 10-point scale and grouped into three categories accordingly: “more accessible”—6.66 or higher; “moderately accessible”—3.33 to 6.65; and “less accessible”—below 3.33. Where the travel restrictions score was zero, meaning the relevant route was closed to foreign travelers, the overall score was also set to zero.