Post-pandemic travel pokes its head through clouds

Countries badly hit

Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, whose tourism industries rely heavily on international travelers, have been badly hit, in particular.

However, in nations, including China and Thailand, which have large domestic tourism sectors, and where the pandemic has been effectively contained, domestic travel is helping generate some revenue.

Many countries are also feeling the effects of the collapse in the conferences and events market, which has hit hotel revenue hard in Singapore and Thailand.

Biswas said that due to international travel bans continuing across Asia-Pacific, overseas tourism in the region is unlikely to restart until mass inoculation programs for COVID-19 are implemented.

"This is in contrast to Europe, which already had a full-blown pandemic and has reopened since June for tourism and air travel throughout the EU and with selected other countries with a low number of daily cases," he said.

With Asia-Pacific international travel unlikely to resume on a large scale in the near term, limited, safe, quarantine-free travel corridors have been considered between countries which have not had new COVID-19 cases for long periods.

However, recent new cases in Vietnam and New Zealand, which had reported no infections for more than three months, have reduced the likelihood of such plans being realized soon.

Growing hopes for a travel "bubble" between New Zealand and Fiji have likely been postponed further due to the emergence of new COVID-19 cases in Auckland.

The tourism industry throughout Asia-Pacific is facing a protracted period of severe economic hardship as international travel bans largely remain in place.

Even if a vaccine for COVID-19 is approved for use before the end of this year, mass inoculation programs across the region are unlikely to be completed until the middle of next year, if not later.

This means the region's tourism industry will face financial misery for another nine to 12 months, resulting in many small to medium-sized businesses in the sector failing and numerous hotels closing permanently.

No one expects travel to return in the shape it was pre-COVID-19, but one thing is certain－the future will be very different.