Thailand, Seychelles, and other countries approved programs that would
admit tourists from “lower-risk” countries with special quarantine
requirements. Fiji has created “blue lanes” that will allow seafaring
visitors to arrive on yachts and quarantine at sea before they unleash “the
immense economic impact they carry aboard,” Prime Minister Frank
Bainimarama declared on Twitter. St. Lucia requires a negative COVID-19
test no more than seven days before arrival. Australia created a “travel
bubble” that will eliminate quarantine requirements for travelers from New
Zealand. CARICOM countries have also created a “regional travel bubble”
that eliminates testing and quarantine for people traveling from countries
within the bubble.
In a new era of remote work, countries and territories such as Barbados,
Estonia, Georgia, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, and the Cayman Islands offer
new long-term permits, lasting up to 12 months in some places, to entice
foreign visitors to bring their virtual offices with them while spending in
local economies.
Japan, which had seen its international arrivals triple from 2013 to 2018,
started lifting border closures for travelers from certain countries at the
end of October. To accommodate a post-pandemic tourism rebound, an IMF
Working Paper recommends that the government continue a trend of relaxing
visa requirements, draw visitors away from urban centers to less populated
regions of the country, and complement a tourism comeback with improvements
to labor resources and tourism infrastructure.
The World Tourism and Travel Council in a report on the future of the
industry said the pandemic has shifted travelers’ focus to domestic trips
or nature and outdoor destinations. Travel will largely be “kickstarted by
the less risk averse travelers and early adopters, from adventure travelers
and backpackers to surfers and mountain climbers,” the report says.
Leisure travel will lead the comeback in the tourism and travel sector.
Business travel, a crucial source of revenue for hotels and airlines, could
see a permanent shift or
may come back only in phases based on proximity,
reason for travel, and sector.
In the end, the return of tourism will likely hinge on what will be a
deeply personal decision for many people as they weigh the risk of falling
ill against the necessity of travel. The private sector backed by some
tourism-dependent nations is developing global protocols for various travel
industries, including a call for more rapid testing at airports to boost
confidence in traveling.
“The fact is people do not feel comfortable traveling. We have not put in
the necessary protocols to give them that comfort,” St. Lucia Prime
Minister Allen Chastanet said at a September virtual event. “After 9/11,
the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] and other security
agencies around the world did a fantastic job of developing protocols that
regained the public’s confidence to travel, and sadly with this pandemic we
haven’t done that.”
