Quick takes: Tourism industry hails more travel lanes to Europe and America

FROM agencies to trade bodies, the tourism industry cheers Singapore’s re-opening to the United States and the United Kingdom and seven more countries under the quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) announced on Oct 9.

The countries added to the VTL list are France, Denmark, Italy, the United Kingdom,  the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Canada. They come after the VTL kicked off on Sep 8 to Brunei and Germany, with a bilateral VTL with South Korea to take off on Nov 15.

Here's what the industry practitioners have to say about the news:

Alicia Seah, Dynasty Travel's director public relations and communications

"With the high vaccination levels in Europe and the United States, this will spur demand from people eager to travel overseas, especially for those who have not seen their family members after the pandemic forced international borders to close last year. That will be the first wave of travellers.

Ticket prices might spike because of limited flight schedules due to travelling on only designated flights.

We’ve seen ticket bookings for South Korea increase following the announcement on Oct 8, and we expect the demand and fares to spike as this country is a favourite with Singaporeans."

Kevin Cheong, chairman of the Association of Singapore Attractions

"This is definitely a very measured and cautious move, and good for inbound and outbound tourism. However, we should not scale up too quickly. We have to ensure that our safe management protocols are in place.  We don’t know what the reactions from the local communities would be if there is any spike in infected cases and whether that will change the VTLs. We mustn’t let our guard down."

Steven Ler, president of National Association of Travel Agents Singapore

"Probably the best news we have (received) since covid started. Although all are long-haul destinations, these are all the year-end popular hot spots for Singaporeans.”

Philip Goh, regional vice president for Asia Pacific at International Air Transport Association (IATA)

"This is a positive and promising development for the aviation and travel sector.  The easing of the testing regime ... from 4 to 2 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests will reduce travel costs.  That’s an equally important and positive factor. These data-based decisions to open up borders progressively will certainly boost air travel recovery.  IATA welcomes it. 

From the experience we have seen in other parts of the world, including Europe and the US, relaxation of travel restrictions have led to improvements in the travel market and is good for airlines and travel businesses.  We recognise that the Asia Pacific region has a different risk appetite, partly owing to lower vaccination rates in many parts of the region, but we hope this further easing of measures and expansion of Singapore’s border reopening will spur other markets to similarly navigate their pathways towards restarting air travel.

Singapore’s announcement is very encouraging and a step in the right direction. We hope this will give other Asia Pacific states confidence to hasten the reopening of their borders.  International passenger demand is forecast to reach only about 44 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels in 2022, so the journey to recovery for the aviation sector will be long, but positive strides forward in the restart will bring further confidence."  

READ MORE:

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• Singapore tightens rules for unvaccinated; simplifies testing protocols

• Singapore cannot stay locked down, closed off indefinitely: PM Lee

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