When the dreadful consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States first became apparent in the Northeast in March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to the shelter-in-place orders issued in locales like New York City not with a shutdown of his own, but with an executive order requiring a 14-day quarantine of all residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut entering his state.
It was a decision that quickly would be adopted by governors throughout the U.S., with some states reaching the point as the virus spread that they had quarantine orders for nearly every other state. It also had a significant effect on business travel, according to suppliers and analysts, with some would-be travelers willing neither to quarantine nor to violate their state's executive order.
DeSantis, a Republican, in announcing the March 23 executive order noted that breaking it could carry criminal penalties, and that travelers would be met by local or state law enforcement. It doesn't appear that anyone, at least in the contiguous 48 states, has been prosecuted for breaking their state's quarantine. But, according to analysts, the psychological barrier of intrastate travel quarantine orders remains, even if the threat of prosecution has proven a paper tiger.
"Recent booking trends suggest that a patchwork of domestic quarantine restrictions recently imposed by various jurisdictions are suppressing travel and leading to a rise in cancellations," Deutsche Bank airline analysts as early as July 13 wrote in a research note.
There also has been some evidence that some organizations have directed their would-be travelers to respect the orders by staying home or honoring the self-quarantine.
The drag on demand doesn't appear to end anytime soon, at least until recently unveiled Covid-19 vaccines receive widespread distribution, as the coronavirus spreads in the U.S. at a record-setting pace. As for DeSantis, he quietly rescinded in August the executive order on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut; those three states, who in late spring had instituted their own orders regarding arriving travelers from Florida, did not return the gesture.