While the emergence of new COVID-19 Omicron variant feels like a “sucker punch” to some in Canada’s travel industry, others are holding onto hope that the sector’s recent rebound won’t be put on hold again. But that may be about to change with new border testing and isolation measures announced Tuesday.

With little known about the new variant and how vaccines will fare against it, the travel industry is worrying that clients may cancel travel plans, even if public health advice around vacations doesn’t change.

Early this week, travel agents and associations were reporting a trickle of calls from clients curious about cancellation policies after the World Health Organization designated Omicron, first detected in South Africa, as a “variant of concern” last week and several cases emerged in Ontario and another in Quebec over the weekend. BC reported its first case Tuesday.

Japan has asked international airlines to stop taking new reservations for all flights arriving in Japan until the end of December as the country further tightens its border controls against a new coronavirus variant, the transportation ministry said Wednesday.

It said the request is an emergency precaution amid growing concern over the spread of the new omicron variant.

Those who have already made reservations are not affected, although flights may be canceled if there are insufficient passengers, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said. Transit passengers are also unaffected, it said. Japan is a major transit hub for flights to and from Asia.

The move comes as Japan confirmed a second case of the omicron variant in a person who arrived from Peru, one day after it reported its first case in a Namibian diplomat.

Yesterday British airline easyJet said that it had seen some impact on demand from the variant in the days since it was first identified, but chief executive Johan Lundgren said the impact so far is not on the level seen previously when restrictions were imposed, although he stressed it is “too soon to say” what the ultimate hit will be.

Mississauga, Ont., travel agent Kristin Hoogendoorn says while her company, KMH Travels, hadn’t seen a wave of cancellations yet, a few clients have already asked about refund policies.

“People will hear the word variant and they will see it all over the news and they will freak out,” Hoogendoorn predicted.

Richard Smart, CEO of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), also hadn’t seen a scramble to change vacation plans yet, but acknowledged restrictions Canada placed on those arriving from southern African countries over the weekend could stir up troubles.

“It all comes down to consumer confidence and anything that impacts consumers’ confidence to travel is going to have an affect on the travel industry,” he said. “An announcement like the one that we saw over the weekend has already got the waters rippling.”

Those waters were undoubtedly rippled further yesterday as countries around the world – including Canada – began re-imposing testing and isolation protocols for arrivals, procedures that are a proven obstacle to travel intentions.

Smart and Hoogendoorn say the uncertainty around Omicron comes at an unfortunate time. As COVID-19 cases dropped and vaccination levels rose, they noticed people became comfortable globe-trotting again in recent months.

Air Canada told analysts in early November that domestic leisure bookings were recovering and people were visiting family and friends and even heading to “sun destinations” again.

“It was like the stigma had gone and we were starting to slowly come back,” Hoogendoorn said. But she believes that if the new variant winds up to be more virulent or deadly, the recovery the industry was seeing prior to Omicron will be further delayed.

“This variant feels like a sucker punch for our little tiny sector that keeps getting battered and if people cancel, I don’t know how much longer that we would be able to survive,” she said.

Smart, however, was holding onto hope that Omicron might not scuttle the travel industry’s recovery just yet because vaccination rates are high.

“We remain concerned but… cautiously optimistic that we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, adding, “We expect 2022 to be a very good year.”