South-east Asia's tourist hubs easing travel restrictions

[MANILA] South-east Asia's tourist havens from Bali to Bangkok are moving to further reopen, rolling back Covid-19 restrictions to attract more visitors and bolster growth in their tourism-reliant economies.

Thailand announced on Friday (Mar 18) that it will further ease entry rules for vaccinated visitors starting Apr 1. Foreign tourists will no longer be required to hold a Covid-free certificate issued within 72 hours of boarding a flight, but they will have to undergo an RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test on arrival and a self-administered antigen test on day 5.

Vietnam on Thursday waived quarantine rules for all international travellers, building on earlier efforts including allowing limited group tours after 2 years of stringent curbs. Cambodia has dropped testing requirements before and upon arrival, Khmer Times reported.

The Philippines and Malaysia will also allow quarantine-free entry to all fully vaccinated travellers from Apr 1. In Indonesia, the government is set to give an update on its virus measures on Monday, after saying that it would lift quarantine measures for international travel in April or sooner following a trial run in Bali.

Tourism accounted for 12.1 per cent of South-east Asia's economic output and employed 42 million workers in 2019, according to the Asian Development Bank. Then the pandemic hit and plummeting visitor arrivals pushed more people into poverty and unemployment.

Covid infections have eased in places like the Philippines and Indonesia, but remain elevated in Vietnam and Thailand. The good news is that vaccination rates are improving across the region, allowing further reopening.

In Singapore, the target is to open to all fully vaccinated travellers sooner rather than later, as part of a push to restore passenger volumes to at least 50 per cent of pre-Covid levels this year. BLOOMBERG