As it gears up for the reopening of international borders, the Philippines is looking at the possibility of replicating Phuket’s Sandbox model, while at the same time working to ease travel protocols.
Tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said at the Philippine Travel Exchange (PHITEX) 2021 in Subic that as early as May this year, the government has already been working on setting up green lanes, similar to Phuket’s Sandbox scheme that allows fully vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries to enter the Thai resort island without quarantine.
Romulo-Puyat pointed out that as authorities wish to ease travel restrictions, especially for fully vaccinated tourists, more Filipinos are getting inoculated while all tourism workers nationwide are expected to be vaccinated before year-end.
It is “imperative” for the Philippines to return to the international stage and the sandbox model “seems to be the most viable”, given its direct air access, opined C9 Hotelworks managing director, Bill Barnett.
“Cebu is the logical choice given it’s an island and has direct international routes,” said Barnett.
Meantime, in a webinar by the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and Santos Knight Frank, tourism undersecretary Verna Buensuceso said travel corridors within Asia is possible as they are looking at green lanes with say, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan going directly to specific destinations in the Philippines.
It can include specialised charters to destinations that are prepared to accept foreign visitors with specialised protocols for groups coming in, Buensuceso said.
And as the country prepares for foreign arrivals, especially for fully vaccinated individuals, Buensuceso said that authorities are “looking at offering protocols that will be a bit more relaxed compared with what we have today”.
She said the country is also looking at the “interoperability within our own system” of the EU Covid certificate and IATA travel pass, even as it is also “in the process of putting together a vaccination passport for our own needs”.
“We are exploring these avenues now to make travel a bit more convenient across destinations and markets,” Buensuceso shared.
She estimated a recovery period of two-and-a-half to four years for Philippine tourism because that is also the outlook for the international landscape as per projections by UNWTO, PATA and WTTC.
With international travel largely on hold, staycation demand in Singapore remains unwavering, with 86 per cent of Singaporeans planning to book at least one local trip in the next two months, found a new Tripadvisor study.
According to Tripadvisor’s Seasonal Travel Index for Fall, the vast majority (87 per cent) of travel intent in the Asia-Pacific region remains domestic.
A third of Singaporeans (33 per cent) are planning at least two domestic trips this fall and more than one in ten (12 per cent) are planning on taking three or more domestic trips.
This revenge travel mindset is also evident in the spending habits of Singaporeans this fall as around one in three (35 per cent) plan to spend more on their biggest trip than they did on their biggest trip during the same period pre-pandemic in 2019. Gen Z Singaporeans are most likely to spend more, with nearly half (46 per cent) saying that they will do so.
The study also found that while single-night staycations were all the rage at the start of the pandemic, with prolonged lockdowns and work-from-home, a growing number of Singaporeans are seeking longer getaways.
Around one in seven (13 per cent) of Singaporean travellers indicated their plans for a one-night stay, compared with the 59 per cent that are looking for a longer two- to five-day stay.
In the age of Covid-19, cleanliness remains a top priority for travellers. When it comes to hotels, Singaporean travellers are searching most for clean and modern hotels, with family and mid-range hotels proving the most popular hotel types in Singapore.
The study also revealed that Singaporeans are spending S$487 (US$360) on average on their fall trip. When it comes to planning international travel, city trips are top of the list for Singaporeans, with the most popular destinations being New York City, London, Hong Kong and Dubai.