Reopening borders for tourism is unlikely to happen in 2021

[ASEAN NOW News]

After a period when the vaccines started to arrive early this year, the tourist industry particularly across SE Asia had been looking optimistically towards a recovery for international travel.

 

 

Vietnam and Thailand was two countries that had been looking at creating a travel corridor over the next few months, but those plans are no on hold.

 

Now with the fourth wave of the Covid pandemic hitting countries around the globe, and especially here in SE Asia, all thoughts of a recovery for 2021 are on hold again.

 

In the short term, the future of tourism will be a few regional travel bubbles, while it will be much longer before there's widespread traveling beyond our regional bubbles, say the travel experts.

 

That means that travel from Europe, the United States or Australia to SE Asia, for instance, will be a long time away.

Naturally until they get the situation under control within the United States, no countries or very few countries will allow them to travel to their destinations.

 

Then you have the other countries who do not have their local situation under control, are likely to have to wait possibly into 2022 before tourists will feel it is safe to travel there.

 

A Balance between health and Economics

 

For countries that are heavily dependent on tourism, they will need to balance health concerns with economic concerns.

 

But even if they feel pressure to open up beyond a bubble, that does not necessarily mean they will see a flood of visitors.

 

If most travel advice still has a country on the DO NOT VISIT list, then it is firstly unlikely they would get the correct papers to travel and also their travel insurance would be invalid.

 

If therefore one country wants to open up, but nobody is comfortable going to that country for whatever reason, it is just not going to work.

 

New Zealand and Australia have committed to creating a "travel bubble" allowing visits between the two countries -- once it's safe to do so.

 

China has begun allowing domestic travel, although its borders are still shut to most foreigners.

 

Thailand has launched its Phuket Sandbox project to allow foreigners to enjoy a vacation as long as they arrive with negative Covid results and they must stay on the island for 14 days.

 

But experts warn that even with new initiatives, it could take years for travel to rise to pre-Covid-19 levels.

 

And even when it happens, we might never travel in the same way again.

 

For most countries, staying isolated is not an option they can afford long-term, and experts predict it is just a matter of time before other countries create travel bubbles of their own.

 

 

As mentioned previously Vietnam and Thailand had been looking at creating a travel corridor, and we would expect other SE Asian countries to follow suit over the next twelve months, but those plans are now all on hold.