Singapore has just stepped back into partial lockdown this month due to new infection clusters and unlinked Covid-19 cases in the community. The current state also means yet another disruption to the highly-anticipated Singapore-Hong Kong Air Travel Bubble, which was supposed to materialise on May 26. At press time, both governments have agreed to revisit the arrangement on or before June 13, when Singapore’s Phase 2 Heightened Alert restrictions end.
In yet another blow for Singapore, who has taken pride in resuming many in-person business events safely since October 2020, the World Economic Forum decided on May 17 to cancel its special annual meeting in the city state. The high-profile meeting was scheduled for August this year, following postponements from mid-May to late-May and then to August because of pandemic uncertainties.
Disruptive as these developments may be to travel and tourism recovery, most of us know that such evolving conditions are something we have to take in our stride. We have a full year and more to observe how the virus impacts countries and communities, and we know that even the best in Covid-19 containment is not immune to sudden infection surges.
Maldives, the envy of many destination marketers for being able to safely resume international tourism in July 2020 when most international borders were still shut, has been dealing with a surge in cases since early May. Maldives has now withdrawn her welcome to travellers originating from high-risk countries and regions.
Taiwan, yet another success story in Covid-19 containment, is battling a growing number of local infections.
India, Malaysia and Thailand are still trying to quell troubling new waves.
Hopes of 2021 being better than 2020 are dashed! Or not. It depends on how we want to remember this crisis. This is either a time of darkness or a time of creative brilliance. I will gladly go with the latter. There are plenty of creative survival examples here in Asia.
We have seen hotels, resorts and serviced apartments do well with workation, staycation, long-stay and themed stay packages, some built for beloved pets and others for home owners waiting out home renovations. Some hotels have successfully turned to delivering gourmet delights to customers stuck at home, while others have become skilled destination story-tellers.
NTOs, tourist attractions and tour operators have devised out-of-the-box ideas to engage their customers and keep the travel dream alive, such as through virtual reality tours and online interactions with in-destination artisans, chefs, oenophiles, cave explorers, and many other subject matter experts that travellers would love to meet on their trips but might not always have the chance to do so.
Innovative partnerships with non-hospitality businesses have been forged to the benefit of travellers and guests.
We may be living in one of our darkest times in modern history, but these are also days of bright ideas that could forever change how we travel and appreciate destinations.
Karen Yue is group editor of TTG Asia Media. She sets the editorial direction for the company’s stable of travel trade titles and platforms, and produces content for them as well.
Showcased at Art Basel Hong Kong 2021 from May 21-23, the artworks come in the form of four ceramic plate designs that pay tribute to the distinct art-forms that are intrinsically Hong Kong, such as hand-carved mahjong tiles, hand-made stencils, neon signs and Cantonese opera.
Global air passenger traffic is expected to recover to 88 per cent of pre-Covid levels by 2022, as the vaccine rollout and testing advancements see more travellers return to the skies, according to the IATA.
The report by the IATA and Tourism Economics which looked at a long-term view for post-Covid passenger demand recovery demonstrated that people remain eager to travel in the short- and long-term.
It also predicted that global passenger numbers are expected to recover to 52 per cent of pre-Covid levels (2019) by the end of this year, and surpass pre-Covid levels (105 per cent) by 2023.
By 2030, global passenger numbers are expected to have grown to 5.6 billion. That would be seven per cent below the pre-Covid forecast and an estimated loss of 2-3 years of growth due to Covid-19.
Beyond 2030, air travel is expected to slow, due to weaker demographics and a baseline assumption of limited market liberalisation, giving average annual growth between 2019 and 2039 of 3.2 per cent. IATA’s pre-Covid growth forecast for this period was 3.8 per cent.
The recovery in passenger numbers is slightly stronger than the recovery in demand measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is expected to grow by an annual average of three per cent between 2019 and 2039. This is owing to the expected strength of domestic markets like China with large passenger numbers and shorter distances.
“I am always optimistic about aviation. We are in the deepest and gravest crisis in our history. But the rapidly growing vaccinated population and advancements in testing will return the freedom to fly in the months ahead,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.
“And when that happens, people are going to want to travel. The immediate challenge is to reopen borders, eliminate quarantine measures and digitally manage vaccination/testing certificates.”
While the damage caused by Covid-19 will be long-lasting, IATA’s study showed that people have retained their need and desire to travel, with news of borders reopening met with an instant surge in bookings.
The most recent example is the 100-percentage point spike in bookings from the UK to Portugal when the UK’s “Green List” was announced in early May.
IATA also predicted that vaccination rates in developed countries, with the exception of Japan, should exceed 50 per cent of the population by 3Q2021.
“This should be a clarion call to governments to get ready. The travel and tourism sector is a major contributor to GDP. People’s livelihoods are at stake. To avoid greater long-term economic and social damage, restart must not be delayed,” said Walsh.
“Governments can facilitate a safe restart with policies that enable restriction-free travel for vaccinated people, and testing alternatives for those unable to be vaccinated. Governments must also be ready with processes to digitally manage the vaccine or test certificates – ensuring that a safe restart is also efficient.”