Issue #67 - 21 Things That Will Forever Remind Us of Travel in Asia Pacific in 2021
A rewind of the events that galvanised attentions across this gruelling year.
Hello. Welcome to issue 67 of Asia Travel Re:Set…
Gruelling.
I can’t think of any other way to describe 2021.
We enter the holiday season confronting similarly complex uncertainties as 12 months ago, after shards of light briefly flickered in November.
So, let’s rewind the 21 events that galvanised attentions across this gruelling year.
Thanks for being on board,
Gary
21 Things That Will Forever Remind Us of Travel in Asia Pacific in 2021
A concise rewind of the events that galvanised attentions across this gruelling year.
1) India and the Delta Variant
From late February, the world watched in horror as India suffered at the hands of Covid-19. The infection wave peaked at 414,000 daily cases on 14 May. The Delta Variant was first identified in India. It became the world’s most deadly mutation. Delta scythed through South East Asia, parts of which had hitherto held the pandemic at bay. On 22 July, the 10 ASEAN nations surpassed 1 million active cases for the first time. Indonesia counted a record 57,000 cases on 15 July. It would get much worse.
2) Phuket Sandbox
After months of protracted flip-flopping, Thailand reopened the island of Phuket to vaccinated foreign (not domestic) visitors on 1 July. The Prime Minister greeted the first arrivals, but the procedures were complex and the timing was all wrong. Thailand agonised further and introduced the ‘quarantine-free’ Test & Go replacement in 1 November. A better system timed for the end-of-year travel season.
3) 12 More Months Without Chinese Travellers
It’s not just the volumes of Chinese visitors to individual countries, or the totals of group vs independent travellers. It’s the entire travel eco-system China built across Asia Pacific in the 2010s. Airlines. Hotels. OTAs. Business travellers. And investors. A regional recovery needs China’s participation. All of which makes Australian Tourism Minister Dan Tehan’s comments this week that overall strong demand for travel will help mitigate the loss of Chinese visitors seem like political posturing.
4) South Korea Becomes Asia’s Most Vibrant Outbound Market
Vaccinated South Koreans who were exempt from quarantine when travelling overseas and returning home took off en masse for summer vacations. Hot destinations included Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain. Travel bubbles opened with Guam and Saipan. Hawaii and Maldives moved onto radar. Then came a Delta case surge and Omicron. The government reimposed a quarantine on return.
5) Trans-Tasman Bubble Briefly Flourishes
Floated between the two governments in late April 2020. Commenced 1-way from New Zealand to selected Australian states on 16 October. Two-way Australia-New Zealand travel commenced on 19 April 2021. Paused briefly. Suspended on 21 August.
6) Hong Kong-Singapore Air Travel Bubble - Remember That?
Hong Kong and Singapore tried valiantly to float their bilateral bubble. On 15 November 2020, a few days before version 1.0 was set to take off, it was postponed. That was in the pre-vaccinated era. Several months later, a re-floated version 2.0 was scheduled for 26 May. It failed. And that, as they say, was that.
7) Myanmar in Turmoil
Myanmar’s military executed a coup on 1 February, unleashing violence, torture and imprisonment. It is prosecuting former leaders. This is not a travel story, but it is heart-breaking to watch, and is a depressing legacy for South East Asia from 2021.
8) “We Don’t Want Backpackers”
“We will filter tourists that come visit. We don’t want backpackers to come so that Bali remains clean, where the people who come are of quality.”
Bali’s putative mid-October reopening to inbound visitors has not yet got going. One month earlier, Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, made the above statement about Bali’s tourism new direction. The comment was quickly retracted, but… well… it’s tricky to un-say something like that.
9) 8 Months of No Travel in Malaysia
Malaysia closed its borders on 18 March 2020. Between lengthy lockdowns, domestic travel was permitted for Christmas and New Year. With infections rising, domestic tourism was again prohibited on 13 January. The travel ban remained intact until a travel bubble for vaccinated residents was trialled in Langkawi on 16 September.
10) No Fuss Maldives
Maldives reopened to international travellers on 15 July 2020, after a 110-day closure due to COVID-19. No bubbles, VTLs or Sandboxes. An unfussy reopening. Despite closing to Indian visitors (its #1 inbound market) in mid-2021, the islands received 715,600 visitors across the 1st year of reopening. In the first 11 months of 2021, Maldives greeted 1,162,425 arrivals - 24.4% down on 2019, but up 152.1% on 2020.
Air travel in Asia Pacific has changed dramatically. But what’s it like to fly from Bali to Melbourne in late 2021? On this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, I chat with Melina Caruso, Business Development Director of the Bali Hotels Association. From her quarantine hotel in Jakarta, Melina discusses how a 5.5-hour hop is now a 26-hour marathon, with unfamiliar airport and airline experiences en route.
Listen here:
🎧 Website
🎧 Spotify
🎧 Apple
Or wherever you grab your pods!
11) The Empty Olympics
Delayed for one year due to the pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 (read: 2021) organisers banned foreign visitors. Most venues were devoid of spectators. Hence, the Games were a product of the time, and will be remembered for mask-wearing ceremonies and empty stadiums as much as for the impressive world records achieved.
12) COP26, Global Heating & Travel
The COP26 circus placed travel and tourism firmly in the sustainability cross-hairs. Brands that invested in greenwashing and faux-eco PR are unlikely to get an easy ride. That said, the travel industry has been disrupted beyond compare, and the focus in 2022 will be on financial recovery. Will the “this is a time to reset our environmental values” talk get to walk - or simply sit down and take a back seat once more?
13) AirAsia’s SuperApp
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021, AirAsia and its co-founding front man Tony Fernandes have their detractors. But South East Asia’s largest LCC redefined air travel in the region until COVID struck. As a private entity with no government funding, it faced a precipice. Time will tell whether its SuperApp conversion - offering a range of digital services via a single platform - will succeed, but it has started pretty well. Other airlines will attempt to follow in its digital footsteps.
14) Domestic Travel Carries the Burden
Covid has triggered a travel reset, with governments forced to turn to domestic markets - which previously received little finance and marketing support. This continued through 2021, and will remain important in 2022 - which gives me an excuse to trail this piece I wrote on the subject:
“Over the past 16 months, finance ministers have noted that domestic tourism simply cannot fill the void in terms of trip numbers and expenditure – and, therefore, is unlikely to attract much-needed foreign investment to support post-pandemic economic recovery.”
15) Zero Covid Canned … Almost
Zero Tolerance, or elimination, approaches to Covid-19 were (mostly) consigned to the dustbin of history as 2021 progressed. New Zealand is readying to reopen its borders in phases in 2022. Australia (except for Covid-Zero Western Australia) has started to reopen. China and Hong Kong remain upholders of Zero Tolerance. But for how long?
16) “Not” Living With Covid in Hong Kong
“If Hong Kong were to loosen the border controls… or adopt what other countries have done… to live with the COVID-19 virus, then the chances of resuming travel with the mainland will be reduced.”
So said Carrie Lam, Hong Kong Chief Executive, in October as she tightened travel rules to align with China’s hard border policy. The phrase: “or adopt what other countries have done… to live with the COVID-19 virus” echoed Beijing’s Zero Tolerance stance as Hong Kong targets quarantine-free travel with the mainland above all else.
17) Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs)
Pandemic-era official messaging in South East Asia (especially Singapore and Malaysia) is littered with initialisms. SOPs (standard operating procedures) is the most ubiquitous, but many others exist. Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) - quota-capped, quarantine-free air travel corridors - partly define 2021 in Singapore. Its VTL country count stands at 21, with 3 (UAE, Saudi Arabia & Qatar) currently deferred.
18) China-Laos Railway
Reported globally with a mixture of curiosity and analyses of governmental debt, the much anticipated China-Laos railway launched on 3 December. It forms the first part of China’s pan-ASEAN railway plan to connect South East Asia with the city of Kunming and China’s own high-speed rail network. Running from Boten on the China-Laos border to the Lao capital of Vientiane, the new train offers passengers the chance to view this spectacular country from their window.
19) South East Asia Starts to Reopen
It began in August. As vaccine rates increased, some countries - notably Singapore - began talking of ‘endemicity’ and ‘Covid resilience.’ Thereafter, as I wrote last week: “Border reopenings commenced, at varying degrees of scale, in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. Cambodia and the Philippines were poised. Laos perhaps.” In November, cautious optimism emerged for the Lunar New Year holiday period.
20) Cambodia Goes All In
Cambodia spotted a window. Emboldened by a highly vaccinated population, it decided to reopen for visitors. Unlike Thailand, whose quarantine-free reopening is restricted to vaccinated travellers from 63 destinations, Cambodia welcomed all nations. There are issues, notably direct flights and demand appears slow. But, still.
21) Omicron
On 26 November, the WHO designated variant B.1.1.529 as “a variant of concern, named Omicron.”
On 9 December, the WHO Director General said:
“Yesterday marked one year since the first administration of a COVID-19 vaccine. We all believed and hoped at the time that a year later, we would be nearing the end of the pandemic. Instead, as we enter the third year of the pandemic, the death toll has more than tripled, and the world remains its grip. We have often said that as long as vaccine inequity persists, the more opportunity the virus has to spread and mutate in ways no one can prevent or predict. And so, we have Omicron, which threatens to unravel the gains we have made.”
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 69 - and for Asia Travel Re:Set in 2021.
The newsletter will return fit and firing in January 2022.
Until then, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and the Asia Travel Re:Set website - and we have 2 more editions of The South East Asia Travel Show to come this year.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Gary