Tourists scarce as travel bubbles fail to inflate Resurging infections have halted several travel bubbles, while getting stranded abroad during a trip has become a new risk tourists must consider By Neil Sands / AFP, WELLINGTON Quarantine-free travel bubbles were earlier this year hailed as tourism’s “godsend,” but cancelations and suspensions have deflated hopes they will herald a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic normality. Perhaps the world’s most high-profile bubble opened between Australia and New Zealand on April 19, leading to emotional scenes as families split when borders closed almost 400 days earlier were reunited. Since then, New Zealand has ordered partial shutdowns on four occasions due to virus scares in Australian states, the most serious of which forced Melbourne into a snap lockdown this week.