Vaccine passports not a silver bullet for tourism-starved South-east Asia: Moody's

REOPENING to tourists will be crucial to South-east Asia's post-pandemic recovery, but vaccine passport schemes in the pipeline also pose challenges.

Moody's Analytics economist Xu Xiao Chun said in a recent report that "placing Chinese and Singaporean tourists back at airport gates is key to revitalising the region".

But easy access to digital health records "raises concerns about data security and confidentiality" as well as verification and authentication, Dr Xu suggested on March 19.

His report singled out China's roll-out of vaccination and Covid-19 test history, which reportedly can be accessed through Tencent Holdings' popular WeChat mobile app.

"In China, citizens are more accepting about sharing personal information; however, there will be greater trepidation in other parts of the world," the report noted.

Different parts of the world are also developing multiple vaccine passports of their own, while which vaccines are accepted in which areas hinges on geopolitical ties.

Barclays analysts also expect the initial easing of border controls to "be small and targeted", according to a report on March 12 that cited cautious stances by governments.

"Early moves to relax travel restrictions are unlikely to be a game changer in the near term, especially for countries that rely heavily on tourism revenue," they wrote.

"We maintain our base case and expect a meaningful opening up to only take place around Q4 2021 or the beginning of 2022 at the earliest."

Still, Moody's Dr Xu stressed that bilateral and multilateral agreements on reopening borders "would breathe life into the shuttered tourism industry across Asia and frozen business travel, which has shut down foreign direct investment".

South-east Asia is the second-most travel-reliant region after the Caribbean, he said, with Thailand and the Philippines highly economically dependent on tourism.

As such, he urged world leaders to "find a long-term solution to travel and cooperation", based on coordination and diplomacy, to re-energise the tourism sector.

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