Air travel could be headed for more turbulence, as changing rules by some countries mean people could be put off going there.
Conor Pope, Irish Times consumer affairs correspondent, was responding after Portugal announced a negative test result will be required for all passengers arriving into the country from December 1st.
Children under 12 are exempt, as are people who enter the country by land.
While a negative PCR or professionally carried out antigen test will be needed to fly into Ireland from the end of this week.
Conor told The Pat Kenny Show the uncertainty is unnerving for many people.
"There's just so many imponderables and so much uncertainty out there, and that's causing frustration - and indeed anger - to mount across the board.
"And people are getting very, very upset.
"We all thought we've reached a plateau [with] the Delta variant, we're steadying the number of cases.
"And then suddenly we have a new variant coming down the tracks that has turned everything on its head again."
On travel, he says changing rules for some countries - like Portugal - is a big concern.
"I was in Portugal a couple of weeks ago, and I relied - and my wife relied - on our Digital COVID Cert.
"And we all thought that when the Digital COVID Cert was introduced on July 19th, that that was going to be the answer to international travel across Europe.
"But as I say, this week everything is different.
"I've been speaking to people in the travel industry, and they're just so on-edge - that's the only way to put it.
"Their nerves are frayed, because they don't know what's going to happen next.
"And even what emerges from the Cabinet meeting won't give us any kind of consistency.
"And we don't know what's going to happen this time next week".
'No need to make big decisions'
But he says people should take a step back from it all.
"There is no need to be making big decisions on what you're going to do with your travel plans for this week, next week, the week after next.
"I think we really do have to draw a breath and wait and see what happens next - cause we just don't know".
And he says those who booked with travel agents or tour operators should be covered for any sudden change.
"If they have travel insurance, typically nowadays in the 20 months since the pandemic, it will cover COVID cancellations if there's a Department of Foreign Affairs travel advisory against going to a particular destination.
"The third cohort will be people who booked holidays independently, but maybe don't have travel insurance - then they're kind of at the mercy of the airlines, they're at the mercy of the tour operators, hotels or whatever it might be.
"We're talking about seven countries in Africa today, it could be 20 countries tomorrow - and I'm not saying that to scare people because we just don't know".
