Visitors from Singapore to South Korea using VTL spared new 10-day quarantine

THE South Korean embassy in Singapore said on Thursday (Dec 2) evening that the bilateral quarantine-free travel arrangement between the two countries "would proceed without change at the moment".

This statement followed Seoul's Dec 1 statement that it would impose a 10-day quarantine for all arrivals from Dec 3 - an announcement which had triggered a day of confusion among Singapore travel agents and their customers over whether the quarantine would apply to travellers from Singapore arriving under the quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangement.

Jeremiah Wong, senior marketing and communications manager at Chan Brothers Travel, told The Business Times before the embassy's announcement that it was awaiting official confirmation about whether the new restriction will apply to travellers from Singapore under the VTL arrangement between the two countries.

He said: "We had a couple of calls of concern since our retail offices opened for business this morning at 11 am, and we assured our customers that we would be updating them immediately, and the next steps, once we had concrete information from the authorities."

Their customers had seemed more concerned about the quarantine requirement than about the record infection cases reported in South Korea, he said.

A travel agent's public relations officer, who did not want to be named as the situation was evolving at the time, said that agents were clueless before the embassy's statement was published. Checks with airlines earlier on Thursday had not helped to clear the confusion.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

"We will reach out to them tomorrow (to tell them it's quarantine-free), and we are going ahead with the tours," Chan Brothers' Wong added in a subsequent call with The Business Times, following the embassy's announcement.

Chan Brothers has 5 groups of 20 tourists each that will depart for South Korea by Dec 15.

However, the public relations officer who spoke on anonymity noted the waiver of quarantine applies for now, as the embassy has flagged that the situation remains volatile and advises travellers to check its website regularly for the latest border control measures prior to travel.

She stated that the majority of the customers will proceed with their trips if no quarantine is required.

Asked whether the demand for travel had been affected by reimposed border restrictions in South Korea, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, The Travel Corporation said it was still getting fresh bookings despite the news on the new Omicron variant.

Singapore Airlines declined to disclose whether there were requests to defer travelling or scrap bookings for travel to VTL countries following such additional border restrictions.

Its spokesperson said that it is unable to disclose any commercially sensitive information.

READ MORE

Singapore-South Korea vaccinated travel lane starts on Nov 15