The health council’s negative advice for teens to get a booster shot has a major impact on high school trips to high school students. “The demand for trips is high, but the uncertainty is even greater,” says Ellen Weijand of Travel Inventive in Breda. “Students often enter the country without a booster, but not the museum or restaurant.”
Last year many school trips were postponed because schools were not allowed to ask whether students have been vaccinated. “That is less of a problem now, because most are vaccinated because otherwise they can’t go to the cinema, for example,” says Ellen.
The RIVM shows that at the end of January almost 70 percent of 13 to 18-year-olds had been vaccinated. Those who are not vaccinated must show a negative PCR test, but that is a minority.
The problem facing secondary schools in particular is the negative booster advice for teenagers. “We recently advised a school negatively about a trip to Italy. Students do cross the border, but they do not enter anywhere without a booster. We have about 60 percent fewer bookings than normal. Where we used to go on 400 school trips, we now have about 150.”
The travel industry hopes that Minister Ernst Kuipers will soon give the green light for a booster shot for teenagers. The health council gives advice that does not necessarily have to be adopted by the minister. The reason for the negative advice is that the risks of side effects do not outweigh the risks of serious corona complaints in teenagers. Teenagers rarely get seriously ill. The minister could decide otherwise because exclusion from travel behavior for teenagers entails other adverse consequences.
“The demand for school trips is really huge,” Ellen continues. “Schools ask for our advice. We then look to the government and then to the local police, because regionally it can also differ abroad. The result is that many schools postpone the trip or only decide at the last minute.”
Stan Termeer of the association of schools in secondary education recognizes the image that school trips are being postponed. “Our image is also that schools are reluctant. That is logical given the uncertainties surrounding corona, especially when you consider that the preparation and planning of a foreign school trip can easily start six months in advance.”
Changing corona rules in the Netherlands and abroad is difficult for organizing school trips. Primary students in the Netherlands still have the fewest problems. Children under 13 do not need a QR code. The situation is different abroad, but many primary schools often stayed in their own country before the corona crisis.
“During the lockdown, it was better for us to go abroad with students than in our own country. It was nowhere as strict as here. That is now different. We are now booking more school trips in our own country. We are going to large cities such as Groningen. or Rotterdam, Limburg is also very popular because there is a lot to do there.
Schools should not think that they are cheaper,” warns Ellen. “The Netherlands is expensive. Where teenagers in the outdoors get free access to museums, admission has to be paid here.”