Don't Cancel: Christopher Elliott on Why Your Summer Vacation Is Still Safe Despite the Headlines
In this op-ed, consumer advocate and journalist Christopher Elliott addresses the most common summer travel fears, from airline bankruptcies to geopolitical anxiety and anti-tourist protests, arguing that the world in 2026 is no more dangerous than it was in 2016 and that fear of travel is being driven more by headlines than by reality.
Headlines are fueling a fear of travel, but here’s why your summer vacation is still a safe bet.
Cindy Rubin is afraid to travel. She and her husband have saved for the trip of a lifetime, a Danube river cruise in September, followed by a week in Croatia. Then came the headlines: a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, crew members arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material. She started having second thoughts. “Would you cancel this trip?” she asked.
Rubin isn’t alone. A recent survey by Global Rescue found that more than half of respondents said their concerns about personal safety abroad have increased since last year. I get a version of Rubin’s email every day. Travelers aren’t asking me how to plan a trip, they’re asking permission not to take one.
Call it the summer of fear. A rolling, low-grade panic that sets in between booking a vacation and boarding the plane, fed by headlines, group chats, and one too many late-night doomscrolls. Let’s work through the most common fears.
“My airline is going to go bankrupt mid-trip”
Spirit’s recent collapse spooked a lot of people. But a broken safety net is not the same thing as every airline being about to fold. Delta, United, American, and Southwest are not Spirit. The big carriers remain profitable. The ultra-low-cost carriers like Frontier and Allegiant are the ones to watch. If you booked one of them this summer, buy a solid travel insurance policy, pay with a credit card, and stop worrying.
“It’s too dangerous to travel”
Geopolitical anxiety can cast a shadow across an entire map. A conflict on one side of a continent does not make the other side dangerous, but travelers conflate them anyway. I’ve heard from readers who canceled trips to Portugal because of the war in Ukraine. That’s more than 2,000 miles away. It’s the equivalent of canceling a trip to Los Angeles because of something happening in Boston.
Here’s some perspective. The Institute for Economics and Peace’s annual Global Peace Index ranks the United States 128th out of 163 countries, behind South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda. The countries along Rubin’s Danube route, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, all ranked dozens of places ahead of us. Austria came in fourth. When you cancel a European vacation out of safety concerns and stay home instead, you’re actually moving in the wrong direction. The world is bigger and safer than your news feed makes it look.
“Everyone hates American tourists”
Having spent much of the past year living outside the United States, including in cities that have made protest-against-tourists headlines, here’s what I observed in cafés, on trains, and at hotel front desks from Barcelona to Sydney: nothing. Not a sneer, not a cold shoulder.
The anti-tourist protests are aimed at policy: short-term rentals hollowing out neighborhoods, cruise ship crowds overwhelming small ports, housing costs nobody can afford. They aren’t aimed at the polite American couple looking for the cathedral. Learn “please” and “thank you” in the local language, be a decent guest, and you’ll be fine.
The world in 2026 is no more dangerous than it was in 2016. What’s changed is the volume of the noise around you.
So, Cindy, don’t cancel. Your ship is safe, and so is your route. Go. Eat the schnitzel. See Croatia. Send a postcard.
Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate, author, and journalist, and founder of Elliott Advocacy.