over the weekend. Travel reportedly jumped 18 percent from previous weekends—about 860,000 additional travelers in all—even while the D.C. area, which has been harder hit by COVID-19, remained locked down.
Lead researcher Lei Zhang pointed to an obvious problem: “It actively encourages people to travel from high-risk areas to these otherwise safer, more rural areas without many cases. That’s certainly not a good trend.” For the record, Virginia had allowed some restaurants to resume outdoor seating; Maryland’s ban on restaurant seating remained statewide.
Meanwhile, the mishmash of policies doesn’t just have health ramifications. Restaurant and bar owners are getting hurt, too. Back in Illinois, restaurants that could only serve takeout had no choice but to watch as potential customers drove across the border to reach a sit-down experience elsewhere. “Eat here, drink there,” Doyle’s Pub in Richmond, Illinois, reportedly wrote on Facebook, referring to neighboring Wisconsin. “We need you now more than ever.
I’m not sure crossing a state line to eat at a diner qualifies as “tourism.” Is there a single noteworthy restaurant in the country that’s reopened?