Lifting restrictions will help Bali and Bangkok attract more tourists

According to Bloomberg , from Bali to Bangkok, Southeast Asia’s tourist paradises are reopening, lifting many restrictions to attract tourists and promote economic growth.

Vietnam opened its doors for tourism on March 15, exempted all international visitors from quarantine, restored the unilateral visa-free policy for citizens in 13 countries, and opened more domestic and international flights. .

In addition, passengers entering by air need to test negative for nCoV by PCR within 72 hours, or rapid test within 24 hours (certified) before departure.

Remove restrictions

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stipulates that for people entering by land, waterway or railway, if they have not tested negative for nCoV, they must do it right at the border gate before entering. After the test is negative, they are free to go about.

The Philippines and Malaysia are also allowing quarantine-free entry for all fully vaccinated international travelers as of April 1. In Indonesia, the government will update new epidemic prevention measures on March 21.

Indonesian authorities also said they would lift quarantine requirements for international travelers in April or earlier.

The tourism industry accounts for 12.1% of Southeast Asia’s economic output. According to the Asian Development Bank, in 2019, the sector employed 42 million people.

The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the industry, causing the number of tourists to drop, many people being pushed into unemployment and not having enough to eat.

The number of new Covid-19 infections has decreased in the Philippines and Indonesia, but is still increasing in countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. The good news, however, is that vaccination rates have improved across the region, allowing countries to reopen.

In Singapore, all travelers from the Vaccinated Travel Corridor (VTL) and low-risk country/territory groups will be offered an unsupervised rapid antigen test during the visit. within 24 hours of entering Singapore.

On March 11, Singapore’s Ministry of Health said that the new regulation took effect from March 15 and replaced the previous regulation on supervised self-antigen testing. Singapore’s Ministry of Health noted that the number of imported infections is at a low level and accounts for only about 1% of the total number of infections per day.

Step by step loosening

The new rule applies to travelers from areas with low infection rates such as China, Macao and Taiwan. This rule also applies to vaccinated travelers from countries that have a VTL agreement with Singapore such as Australia, South Korea and the US.

The new regulation is an important step forward in preparing for a new approach to vaccinated people travel.

Further explaining this new method on March 11, Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said Singapore wants to introduce a new method for vaccinated travelers, instead of applying different VTL programs. with different countries.

The new approach will simplify and facilitate international travel, thereby allowing travelers to travel if they are vaccinated, regardless of where they come from, and get the right tests done. .

“There is only a very small group of countries left in Singapore’s concern, we will have to restrict travel to this particular group,” said Mr. Wong. Meanwhile, visitors from other countries. who are not part of the VTL, or a restricted group of countries, are still required to undergo a seven-day quarantine.

Meanwhile, Thailand is considering removing the requirement to test negative for nCoV before entry, in order to further promote the tourism industry, which plays an important role in the economy. Previously, related parties described the conditions for entry without quarantine as “challenging”.

Khmer Times reported that Cambodia has also removed the requirement to test negative for nCoV before and upon entry.

Source: Zingnews.vn

Source: Vietnam Insider