The Economist Intelligence Unit has taken a deep dive into the state
of travel in Asia and has found, quite clearly, that nothing is very
clear at all.
China’s lockdown of its citizens and the war in Ukraine are having an
impact across many parts of the region – but the impact on individual
destinations varies, depending on how quickly countries unlock their
borders, and how slow they are to ditch quarantine measures.
One thing is clear though, according to The Economist: Travellers
care more about restriction measures than vaccination. Why? Restrictions
require significant time and costs from travellers, and complicate
Not surprising, of course, countries have taken the hint and many –
among them Singapore, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia - have
throttled back on their restrictions.
measures have been rendered less meaningful by the infectious Omicron
variant, which has accelerated convergence of Covid-19 transmission
profiles across the world.
Even Hong Kong now says it will allow international visitors from May
1 with mandatory hotel quarantine reduced from 21 days to seven days.
The standout destination, according to The Economist, has been the
Maldives, where tourism during the latter half of 2021 recovered to its
2019 level with public health indicators no worse than other countries.
continued ban on its citizens leaving the country will keep a lid on
global tourism growth for some time yet, but The Economist points to a
couple of factors that will mitigate the loss of Chinese tourists.
the short-term, India is poised to replace China as a major source of
inbound visitors for the Maldives and Sri Lanka; and the revival of
European outbound tourism will support recovery in popular long-haul
destinations like Indonesia and Thailand.