Issue #95 - All This Happened in Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism This Week!
An eventful 7 days from Japan, China, Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan to Bhutan
Déjà vu.
Thursday and Friday felt as if we’d seen them before.
We had, sort of.
As the travel focus switched from South East Asia to North East Asia, a slew of reopening announcements came at once and sounded cautiously familiar.
Japan took centre stage.
Hong Kong and Taiwan will gradually unlock their borders with on-arrival protocols reminiscent of those initially introduced in Thailand and Singapore a year ago.
All eyes - more than ever - are on China!
Thanks for being onboard.
The Sunday Itinerary
- “IN THE NEWS”
- All This Happened in Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism This Week!
An eventful 7 days from Japan, China, Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan to Bhutan
- Japan Reopens for Tourism
In conversation with Kyoji Kuramochi of the Japan National Tourism Organisation
“IN THE NEWS”
"Japan will be a key barometer of the next phase of travel recovery in Asia Pacific... The pace and scale of an inbound travel recovery will be dependent on how quickly airlines are able to rebuild capacity.” I was interviewed by Al Jazeera on Friday for this article about this week’s top travel story.
All This Happened in Asia Pacific… This Week!
“Inflation in the Land of Deflation”
That’s how an anchor on Channel News Asia described the evolving situation in Japan. In Issue 90 , I wrote: “Panic continues to envelop the Bank of Japan as the Yen slipped against the US dollar”. The worry in July was hitting a symbolic low of JPY140 to the dollar. This week, the Yen slid to JPY145 (nearly JPY146), a 24-year low, before the BoJ unusually intervened. The Yen has dropped around 20% against the dollar in 2022*. Inflation rose by 2.8% in August, Japan’s largest monthly increase in 28 years.
Against this economic backdrop, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chose New York (he was attending the UN General Assembly this week) to announce the full resumption of (quota-free, visa-free) inbound travel from 11 October. On the same day (Thursday), Tokyo opened Tourism Expo Japan (replete with Expo 2025 Osaka mascot, see above). Japan will also revive its domestic travel subsidy scheme.
Timed for the lucrative winter season, Japan has identified 22 priority markets to help rebuild its visitor economy over the coming months.
[* NB: Various Asian currencies are currently down notably against the US dollar, so the potential gains for tourists of a weak Yen are highly variable.]
“China Mulls Ramping up Border Travel Market Management”
That was a headline story in Global Times on Monday. The article focused on updating regulations for travel to/from the numerous countries counting a land border with China. One particular sentence was subtly loaded with optimism:
“Border tourism has developed rapidly and has been the fastest growing segment of the outbound tourism market in the past two decades.”
Subsequent comments by Dai Bin, Director of the China Tourism Academy, who was quoted in the above Global Times article, that China's inbound and outbound market will begin a steady recovery from late 2022 / early 2023 are credible and encouraging.
On Saturday, the Macau government said individual e-visas and group tours will gradually resume for residents of three Mainland provinces - Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangsu - plus Shanghai “by the end of October or by early November.”
“Inbound, Outbound Tour Group Ban to be Lifted” in Taiwan
Taiwan announced its new “0+7” policy, which will commence “tentatively” on 13 October. Quarantine will be eliminated for visitors, but they must undertake 7 days of “self-health monitoring”. A rapid antigen test must be taken on Day 0 (arrival) or Day 1. If safely concluded, no further test would be required.
The weekly cap on arrivals will be 150,000.
Taipei Times quoted the Transport & Communications Minister as saying “A ban on inbound and outbound tour groups would be lifted when border controls are eased next month.” This will enable travel agents to sell tour packages for the first time since the borders closed in Spring 2020.
Taiwan News says the “travel sector would need six months to one year to return to the levels seen before the pandemic.”
Full 0+7 details HERE.
“Hong Kong Ends Hotel Quarantine”
News headlines (and LinkedIn posts) on Friday yelled approval for the border progress in Hong Kong. The “0 + 3” scenario is more complex under closer scrutiny. From 26 September, vaccinated arrivals will no longer need to do a 3-day hotel quarantine.
BUT, travellers must take a rapid test 24 hours before flying. On arrival (Day 0), they must take a PCR test. They are then free to go to their hotel, but can’t enter gyms, restaurants and bars until a negative test is confirmed 3 days later. At 9am on Day 4, their health code app will turn from amber to blue, enabling full access to all venues.
BUT, daily testing is required until Day 7 (actually Day 8, given the arrival is Day 0), with a mix of rapid and 3 PCR tests at an authorised centre on Days 2, 4 and 6.
Confused? The SCMP created a diagram explaining the process HERE.
Cathay Pacific issued a statement, saying “These adjustments will help boost sentiment for travel, thereby facilitating the gradual resumption of travel activities.”
Overall… positive news for outbound travel, but Cathay’s standout word regarding inbound begins with the letter ‘g’.
“Welcome to Bhutan, But it'll Cost You $200 Extra a Night”
That’s how Nikkei Asia surmised Bhutan’s new Sustainable Development Fee (SDF), as the Himalayan kingdom reopened for travel on 23 September.
Bhutan, which describes itself as “the first carbon-negative country in the world,” says the SDF is “a daily levy paid by visitors to support Bhutan’s development.”
The USD200 per night fee (a different tariff applies for Indian visitors) will be “allocated to various projects that enhance facilities, services and infrastructure for Bhutanese nationals and visitors, as well as funding free healthcare and education.”
Bhutan is unique. Historically, it developed tourism through scarcity - with clear financial barriers placing a ceiling on demand. The SDF reinforces those barriers.
Will governments with less structured approaches to tourism management seek to appropriate parts of its SDF strategy in their quest for “high-quality tourists”?
Full SDF details HERE.
Japan Reopens for Tourism
“From 6.2 million visitors in 2011, Japan welcomed 32 million arrivals in 2019.” So what happens next? The reopening of Japan has been eagerly anticipated. Japan is a desirable “four seasons” destination, a vital market for travel and tourism region-wide and a key player in Asia Pacific aviation.
On The South East Asia Travel Show, we discuss the outlook with Kyoji Kuramochi, Executive Director, Global Strategy Headquarters of the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO).
In a fascinating interview, Kuramochi-san discusses the dramatic growth of tourism from 2010-2019, the JNTO’s new global marketing strategy, its priority visitor markets and a vision for sustainably developing tourism by 2030.
Listen to Japan Reopens for Tourism, with Kyoji Kuramochi, JNTO, 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 95.
The newsletter (which is published every 2 weeks) will return on 9 October.
Until then, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, the Asia Travel Re:Set website and The South East Asia Travel Show.
Happy travels,
Gary