The last significant obstacle for vaccinated travellers to Canada – obtaining a negative COVID-19 travel test before arrival – is no longer in effect as of today (April 1).

Arriving passengers at Canadian airports may still be subject to random tests before clearing customs, but gone is the sometimes troublesome – and stressful – procedure of obtaining at least an antigen test no more than the day before travel to this country.

On Wednesday, two days before the testing protocol was lifted, I flew from Britain to Canada. Booking my test at Heathrow airport proved annoying when first my iPad, then phone, would not complete the booking process. A borrowed laptop finally overcame the obstruction. Meanwhile, our group pondered how anyone, especially seniors, might have navigated the required procedure, or for that matter, kept up to speed with the ever-changing rules.

Beyond having to arrive earlier than was customary at LHR to take the test – good thing as the office was temporarily closed, forcing us to be redirected elsewhere in the terminal – the experience turned out to be smooth and (mostly) painless. However, the 40-minute wait for the results to be emailed were tense (even though I showed no indication of infection).

Note: I had even taken the precaution of researching potential (inexpensive) hotels near the airport to hunker down if necessary before I left home. I had also forked out about $40 in additional travel insurance to help mitigate such a circumstance.

For me, it was a negative test – “no symptoms shown” – and relief after at last negotiating the lab’s web site to get the result. Yet, I couldn’t help but notice that, after all the trouble, I was not required to upload the results anywhere, nor was I asked to show them to anyone during my journey home. At best, I was required to “agree” in ArriveCAN that I understood that I was not supposed to enter the country if positive.

That entire (though relatively minor) annoyance our group experienced – there are many tales of worse, including testing scams and schemes to force travellers into more expensive tests or even quarantines – certainly illustrated the frustration the travel industry has felt during the pandemic for protocols that were shown to have little effect on preventing the spread of COVID.

It’s not surprising then that Canada’s struggling tourism industry is describing the change in approach, which has been in effect (albeit downgraded from PCR to antigen tests) since the early days of the pandemic, as a major boon.

Travel agents say they’ve seen a surge in demand for flights since the change was announced two weeks ago. And domestic tourism groups also report a big bump in bookings over the last few weeks.

And already, some Caribbean resorts have reported that their free testing services for Canadians – introduced to remove the burden of arranging one’s own test in destination like I did – have been terminated (a financial relief to be sure).

However, while tests are no longer required for people who are considered fully vaccinated, Health Canada still requires that anyone arriving from outside the country wear a mask in public for two weeks – another example of honour system pandemic management.

Stricter at least are the rules for unvaccinated Canadians and other travellers who are exempt from the vaccine requirement, which remain unchanged, with those people still needing to provide a negative test, or evidence that enough time has passed after an infection, to enter the country.

But for the dutifully (and sensibly) vaccinated at least, it’s farewell travel testing. You will not be missed.