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Phuket’s sandbox to Singapore’s travel corridors: as Asia wakes up to travel, destinations weigh risks and rewards
- Thailand and Singapore are at the vanguard of Asia’s tourism reawakening and their moves will be eagerly watched by other destinations seeking an insight into what works and what doesn’t
- Early data looks encouraging, but experts say such schemes are small steps. Increased costs, the risk of new variants emerging, and a lack of demand from Chinese tourists are all hurdles on the long road to full recovery
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Music thumps, break dancers flip across the street and flower sellers weave between tipsy tourists. Phuket’s party strip – Bangla Road – is in soft launch mode ahead of a tourism season the Thai government has bet the house on as it tries to nurse its economy back to health after the ravages of the coronavirus.
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Thailand is among the growing number of Asian economies to have turned their back on efforts to eliminate the virus in favour of learning to live with it, and it is leading by example.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha declared this week the country would open from November 1 to arrivals from “low-risk” areas including Britain, Germany, Singapore, China and the United States, without the need for quarantine (though the country’s health authority later said it was still “discussing” which countries would be deemed “low-risk”).
In fact, Thailand has been ahead of the curve for months; in July, Phuket – Thailand’s Andaman Sea island jewel – launched a “sandbox” scheme in which vaccinated tourists could stay in registered hotels without quarantine.
Since then, other Asian economies have followed its lead, attempting to restart their own tourism industries. From October 19, Singapore will let in vaccinated tourists quarantine-free from 10 locations including the US, Britain and France. It will extend the privilege to South Koreans from November 15.
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