Issue #93 - All This Happened in Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism This Week!
From China and Japan to Singapore and Thailand, it was an eventful 7 days.
Welcome to Issue 93 of Asia Travel Re:Set…
The ceiling for an overall recovery in Asia Pacific remains lowered by enduring travel restrictions in North East Asia.
Now, governments are starting to gradually restore travel activity. This mirrors the phased reopening momentum in South East Asia which began in late 2021.
Close observers of the region over the past 30 months recognise that travel and tourism are more enmeshed in politics than ever before.
This is an emerging reality, and is reflected in the tone of some new developments this week.
Thanks for being onboard.
The Sunday Itinerary
- “IN THE NEWS”
- All This Happened in Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism This Week!
From China and Japan to Singapore and Thailand, it was an eventful 7 days
- Tourism & Climate Change in Asia: Impacts & Implications
In conversation with new research report author Alexander Trupp
“IN THE NEWS”
So… it’s official. My first in-venue Keynote for a very long time! Super excited to be speaking at the 2022 TravMedia International Media Marketplace Asia in Singapore on 17 October. More details here.
All This Happened in APAC Travel & Tourism This Week
A regional round-up from China, Japan & New Zealand to Singapore, Thailand & Vietnam
So, first up… China, which unveiled the “9th edition of its Outbound/Entry Health Declaration Card.” From, 31 August, it will “scrap the requirements for outbound and inbound travelers to report nucleic acid test results, infection history and dates of vaccination.” On-arrival quarantine remains, but state-owned Global Times opined that “several recent steps taken by Chinese authorities make it more convenient for international visitors entering China.” Foreign students and returning Chinese travellers, especially. Seemingly good news, but this article in the South China Morning Post gives pause for consideration about how regional governments in China responded to the Hainan Island Covid-19 outbreak. Thought-provoking, for sure.
Japan will remove the pre-flight PCR test requirement for triple-vaccinated visitors from 7 September. It is also raising the weekly arrivals quota, from 20,000 to 50,000. This marks the next step of a gradual reopening process, and will have travel agents in South East Asia salivating.
Taiwan also intends to phase its reopening. It could begin by accepting group tours from Japan, South Korea and South East Asia - most likely from late September. Trust me, it’s going to be a HOT destination (geo-politics notwithstanding) for regional travellers in the coming months.
Thailand’s Prime Minister, General Prayut Chan-o-cha was this week suspended from office by Thailand’s Constitutional Court. He remains Defence Minister. During his tenure as PM, Prayut placed himself at the forefront of Thailand’s efforts to reopen to tourism. This included personally greeting the first tourist arrivals to Thailand for 16 months as the Phuket sandbox scheme commenced on 1 July 2021 (see below).
Meanwhile, Thailand’s tourism forecast team has set an amibitious target of receiving 7.5m million tourists in the second half of 2022 - about double the first half year total.
In a TV interview, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri said his government is negotiating with Thailand to strike a deal for a high-speed railway (HSR) connecting Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. He also said discussions are underway to revive the KL-Singapore HSR, which Malaysia cancelled in December 2020. (NB: a general election is imminent in Malaysia.) The man who co-signed the original KL-Singapore train deal in 2016, former Prime Minister Najib Razak, began a 12-year jail term this week after losing an appeal against a conviction for corruption. He returned to court 2 days later to face another criminal trial related to his time in office.
Singapore released a statement saying it “awaits details of a new proposal from Malaysia” regarding the HSR project. In addition, it announced that masks will only be mandatory on public transport and in medical centres from 29 August. Neatly timed for the upcoming F1 Grand Prix festival and conference season. It also released details of the paused (and expansive) T5 development at Changi International Airport, which will be able to handle up to 50 million passengers annually from the mid 2030s.
Looking beyond 2022, Indonesia hedged its visitor arrivals forecast for 2023, targeting “3.5–7.4 million international tourists.” If that seems a pretty broad target range, it correlates with this year’s stated spread bet of “1.8–3.6 million.” That said, the top end of the 2022 range and the low-case scenario for 2023 mysteriously overlap.
Vietnam is also tuning up its time machine. Local media gleefully reported a projection by Fitch that it should expect 26 million visitors in 2026. This would represent a more than 5-fold increase on this year’s stated target of 5 million visitors.
Next to New Zealand, where a few days after the Tourism Minister railed against backpackers who “put on Facebook how they travel around our country on 10 dollars a day eating 2-minute noodles,” the annual quota for Working Holiday Visas - a popular vehicle for backpackers to enter, stay and earn in New Zealand - was doubled.
But, will they come?
Relaxing inbound policies right now might not necessarily create the desired outcome.
See, for example, Australia. Working holiday tourism has been an important part of its visitor economy for decades. Australia reopened its borders ahead of New Zealand, but ABC News notes 70,060 backpackers with valid travel-and-work visas have “chosen to stay away.” Seasonality may be a factor. High air fares. Visa delays. A fear, though, is that a level of demand destruction has occurred that might endure for some time.
Tourism & Climate Change in Asia: Impacts & Implications
“We wanted to create a status quo assessment of tourism and climate change in Asia, where research has been limited.”
On this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, I discuss a white-hot issue for the travel industry - how to address carbon emissions and global heating - with Alexander Trupp, Associate Dean of Research & Postgraduate Studies at the School of Hospitality & Service Management, Sunway University in Malaysia.
Alex is co-author of a new research paper, called Tourism Under Climate Crisis in Asia: Impacts and Implications, published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
In our chat, Alex sets out the facts and stats showing the urgency of the climate crisis across Asia’s sub-regions. He discusses specific risks for travel and tourism in each sub-region and identifies the region’s greenhouse gas hotspots. Plus, we address initiatives being put in place to transition towards more sustainable travel.
Listen to Tourism & Climate Change in Asia, with Alexander Trupp, here:
🎧 Website 🎧 Spotify 🎧 Apple Podcasts
Or search for The South East Asia Travel Show on any podcast platform.
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 93.
The newsletter (which is published every 2 weeks) will return on 11 September.
Until then, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, the Asia Travel Re:Set website and The South East Asia Travel Show - where this week we’ll be talking all things travel and tourism in Japan with a special guest.
Happy travels,
Gary