TTG Asia
Asia/Singapore Tuesday, 16th December 2025
Page 826

Sri Lanka keeps borders open to foreign tourists amid Covid-19 surge

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While a resurgence in Covid-19 cases forced the Sri Lankan authorities on Sunday (April 25) to ban state and private functions in the country for two weeks, current rules on inbound travellers remain unchanged.

Inbound tourism to Sri Lanka has remained in the doldrums, as the emergence of new virus variants and Covid-19 resurgences foil international tourism recovery plans. Since reopening to foreign travellers on January 21, the country has seen 9,629 arrivals to date – a far cry from the 507,311 arrivals recorded during the January-April period in 2020.

Flow of foreign visitors to Sri Lanka remain at a trickle; St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka pictured

On Friday, the country reported 969 new Covid-19 cases, the second highest daily number on record. The virus surge has been attributed to the large numbers flocking to markets, shopping malls and other trading centres ahead of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid-April, and the mass exodus of people returning to their hometowns for the holidays.

On Sunday, the government announced a two-week ban on all state and private events, meetings and parties to curb the virus spread. Public gatherings such as exhibitions, conferences, parties, indoor and outdoor events, carnivals, musical shows and processions have been banned.

The new developments also saw the the US, the UK, and Australia issue updated travel advisories on Sri Lanka. Arrival numbers from the UK and Australia, which were significant source markets pre-Covid, are still at a trickle since the country’s reopening.

The US travel advisory said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a Level 2 Travel Health Notice for Sri Lanka due to Covid-19, indicating a moderate level of Covid-19 in the country. Meanwhile, the UK advisory stated that “lockdowns are being imposed in areas affected by Covid-19, and travel restrictions may also be imposed at short notice. Those not adhering to restrictions risk arrest”.

Australia has advised its citizens against travelling to Sri Lanka due to the health risks posed by the pandemic and significant disruptions to global travel.

Tourism minister Prasanna Ranatunga told reporters that despite the current Covid-19 situation, airport operations and border rules on tourist arrivals will be maintained as per recommendations of the health authorities.

“If a tourist who comes to Sri Lanka is found to be infected, he or she would be prevented from socialising. However, at present, there is a lull in tourist arrivals. Nevertheless, we continue to follow the advice of the health sector,” he was quoted as saying in one newspaper.

The authorities have closed the arrival and departure lounges at the main Bandaranaike International Airport to visitors from Sunday until further notice.

Cruise confidence returns for NCL in Asia

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A combination of tactical consumer promotions, close engagements with travel trade partners, and emphasis on onboard health and safety procedures has helped Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) to establish a strong and regular forward booking momentum in Asian source markets so far this year.

In an interview with TTG Asia, Ben Angell, vice president and managing director, APAC revealed that there has been a “very positive level of demand” out of Asia despite ongoing travel challenges and, even more encouraging, is that bookings are bucking Asia’s last-minute booking trend.

Angell: committed to expanding deployments in Asia

Said Angell: “It is no secret that many markets in Asia typically book closer in compared to other markets around the world. Despite that, we’ve seen those booking curves lengthen and some Asian guests have told us that they are excited to travel on 2022, 2023 sailings.”

Asian customers are gravitating towards a mix of itineraries, from the all-time popular Europe, Hawaii and Alaska voyages to close-to-home itineraries.

According to Nicholas Lim, general manager, sales Asia, Chinese New Year sailings out of Hong Kong in 2022 as well as Japan voyages for next year’s cherry blossom season have attracted the healthiest forward bookings out of Asia. Strong source markets for NCL now are Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand and parts of China.

Lim expects more bookings to surface as more travel bubbles are formed, such as between Singapore and New Zealand or Singapore and Australia.

Angell and Lim observed that the promise and delivery of value is more important than ever in cruising today.

“It is not necessarily the lowest price that will convince somebody to put a booking down. It is value that will influence decisions, and we know that value is a complicated mix of price point, promotion, onboard experience, brand quality and so on,” Angell explained.

Lim added that the value mix has to be supported by trade partner engagement and bespoke solutions to help each of them get business in the books.

Norwegian Sun will sail a number of Asian voyages late-2021 through early-2023

To overcome the present challenge of a strained travel retail landscape where agency operations have been disrupted by the travel freeze and past contacts may have disappeared, NCL is focusing on partners that are still active and helping them to grow their bookings.

While solutions would differ across agencies, Angell said the one common assistance rendered by NCL is an aggressive marketing investment to drive consumer demand to partners.

These activities included the best Deal of the Year promotion in late-2020 to trigger year-end bookings for 2021 and 2022 voyages; the CruiseFirst programme for loyal customers; an emotional campaign bearing the slogan “Break free”, launched this year; the Take 5 offer which dishes out freebies, special packages and reduced rates; as well as ease of bookings through a smaller deposit requirement and full payment closer to date of voyage.

NCL would be increasing these investments so as to “position the NCL brand as the brand of choice, for fly-cruise in particular but also for domestic deployment in Asia”, said Angell.

Although NCL has chosen to make its great cruise comeback first in the western region from July to August this year and not in Asia, careful preparations for the widely publicised return to service have boosted customer confidence here.

When asked if NCL had considered deploying cruise-to-nowhere programmes in Asia, which have been successful for competing cruise lines, Angell said “many considerations had been weighed up” and the company would deploy ships “when the best opportunities arise”.

He also expressed a commitment to expanding deployment in Asia, a region that has delivered the fastest growth for the organisation.

Horus launches non-profit podcasts on future of tourism

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Horus Development & Consulting, a luxury destination marketing firm based in Singapore, has rolled out a series of CHORUS podcasts to promote new ideas, values, and best practices in the fields of sustainability in travel and tourism.

Opinion leaders headlining the video series hail from various industries and across professions, with notable names such as Zhang Zhang, social entrepreneur and first violin at the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra; Christine Oberdorff, filmmaker and investigative journalist; Christine Galle, founder and director of Heavens Portfolio; and Cai Yinzhou, director of Citizen Adventures, Singapore.

Badufle (left) and Yew have lined up opinion leaders across industries and professions for conversations on the future of tourism

The episodes will be hosted by either Horus founder, Benoit Badufle, who is recognised as the face of the Principality of Monaco’s tourism campaigns in Asia, or Zhi Heng Yew, the company’s marketing manager.

Badufle said the series would also highlight other relevant topics, such as environmental protection, culture, heritage, leadership, human encounters, adventure, performing arts, animal welfare and more – all of which are “at the core of what travelling ought to be and must become again”.

“History reminds us that it is in the aftermath of global crises that cultural renaissance is born. The question is: what direction will it take? History also teaches us that these cultural dawns can be short-lived,” remarked Badufle.

“So, as the post Covid-19 era is becoming more of a possibility, we aim to play a positive part in encouraging the tourism industry towards better practices. We aim to demote mass tourism and the ‘consumption’ of tourism and travel, demote the ‘been there, done that, bought the tee shirt’ mentality, and instead promote tourism…based on respect, immersion, openness to otherness, whether human or cultural.”

He added that CHORUS podcasts aim for analytical discourse, allowing opinion leaders to “get to the bottom of things, and to open new horizons on a wide variety of subjects for which our participants are passionate about and wish to engage”.

The premiere episode of CHORUS is out now, and it details the manifesto of the project as well as observations on changes to travel and tourism from the viewpoints of Badufle and Yew. The next episode will be out before the end of this month.

Along with this series, Horus has debuted a line of sustainable marketing services to help brands articulate and communicate their sustainability goals.

A day in the life of India

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(From left) Rohit and Rajeev Kohli

The world is now reading and watching headlines of a story unfolding in India of widespread infections, mass cremations and all-around anguish.

The stories are not all false, of course. It will be irresponsible for us to say otherwise. What happened? How did we go from being a global role model of controlling the infection to a living nightmare in less than a few weeks?

It was simply our complacency and overconfidence spiced with administrative incompetence and political upmanship. All those elements that every other major country in the world has been through in their subsequent waves. We just hit our second wave much later than everyone else. Today, we see other great nations like Japan and Canada also seeing a new wave and imposing lockdowns.

As you see images of India this week, let’s not forget all the images we saw of body trucks in New York or stretchers on the street in Italy. The world is all the same. We have all suffered the same aspects of the pandemic. A small difference in India is that our last rites are very public, very poignant and very visual, and that makes for good news headlines and graphics. As much as we hate it, we need to accept that media markets tragedy.

Till February, as the number of cases dropped across our country and Covid restrictions reduced, people became freer and started getting back to their everyday lives. We dropped our guard. Our governments, central and state, allowed for large political and religious gatherings (in the millions), and this was perhaps just (the) opening that the virus was looking for. Our governance lacked the foresight to see what was coming. The second wave came so fast that it took us all by surprise. We were not prepared.

Things are catching up, though. Medical facilities and supplies are being ramped up on a war footing, and we expect that there will be more of a balance in the next few days.

Don’t forget that India has some of the best doctors globally, and we salute the medical teams working under intense pressure. India has always been called the Pharmacy of the world; 60-plus per cent of all global vaccines for most of the pharma giants are manufactured in India.

It will be too late for some, but the rest are getting help. We do expect more people to get infected, 85 to 90 per cent being mild and recovering with home treatment. The overall recovery rate is also very much higher.

India still has one of the lowest per million caseloads and one of the lowest mortality rates at 1.13 per cent against the world average of 2.12 per cent. We have had an average of 147 deaths per million of population, and only 1.3 per cent of the population has been infected.

India is running the world’s most extensive vaccination programme. On March 1, it was opened to anyone aged above 60 years old; on April 1 to anyone over 45 years; and from May 1 all adults, aged over 18 will be eligible to get the vaccine. Some 39,484 vaccination centres are operating seven days a week, and so far, 138.6 million doses have been administered. India’s millions of doctors, healthcare and frontline workers had all been vaccinated by February, one of the few large countries in the world to have achieved this. This is also a reason there are very few cases of doctors falling ill.

India donated millions of vials to neighbouring nations and other developing countries. The largest vaccine producer in the world is in India and is working overtime to fulfil all its orders. Unfortunately, (production) has been road blocked by a stoppage of supplies of raw materials from some major western countries, which (the producer is) trying to resolve.

We do expect strict lockdowns to be imposed again soon, and we all agree we need some of that. Delhi and Mumbai have already taken these steps. We need to break the chain. It does not alarm us as we now know how to navigate life in that state. The past lockdowns helped us last time, and now with this and the vaccination drive, it will help even more. The silver lining on this dark cloud is that all essential services are operating just as normal, so nobody’s daily lives at home are impacted at all.

Indians are a resilient lot. We have been through many a crisis before, and we have learnt how to support each other. The grassroots support systems that have come up across the country are so heartwarming. No matter what religion or belief they have, all have come together to work as a team. People have grouped to lend a hand…to anyone who needs it, whether it is to deliver home-cooked meals to those in isolation or oxygen cylinders. There are support lines and WhatsApp groups working overtime to make sure we all get through this together.

And we shall! We are a very spiritual nation. As we face the realities of this pandemic, we also look inward for strength from our beliefs. Like all our tragedies and trials of the past, we shall rise as a proud nation, bonded as one to show the world what Indians are made of.

India is incredible.

Dorsett ensures clean air quality across its HK hotels

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7 unique experiences to behold in Macao

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Brought to you by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO)

Macao Grand Prix Museum

An ode to the street circuit racing event synonymous with Macao, the Macao Grand Prix Museum is now open during weekends and public holidays, with a full reopening set for June 2021.

The LEED gold certified museum stands at 16,000m2 post refurbishment, and utilises zoning to enhance visitor experience and interaction.

From thematic displays of Macau Grand Prix (MGP) through the times; to deconstructed vehicular displays; to virtual reality racing; visitors will get to uncover much about the city’s revered motorsport culture.

The revamped facilities are also inclusive – such as a tactile barrier-free exhibit zone on racing cars; amongst other thoughtful gestures – to facilitate engagement and wider accessibility for visitors with special needs.

Visit the museum’s e-ticketing system for bookings.

Macao Museum

Chronicling the way of life and cultures of the various communities who have inhabited the city for ages, visitors may opt to self-traverse storied tapestries taking them from pre-colonial times to a vibrant, and contemporary Macao; or partake in guided tours of both temporary and permanent exhibits.

Located on the grounds of Mount Fortress, the city’s historical principal military defence structure, the museum retains its original architectural configuration and character – with two underground levels, and a third above the fortress’ top platform. Its lofty location offers visitors a peaceful retreat, as well as panoramic views of the city from various points around the fort.

Click here for more ticketing information.

Explore green corridors of Macao

The southern districts of the Macao peninsula are renowned for their teeming biodiversity.

From Taipa to Coloane, ecological zones have been carved out following years of careful reclamation, fusing hiking trails and rolling landscapes together in attracting visitors to appreciate nature’s wonders – from lotus-viewing platforms in the day to firefly-watching at night.

In line with providing greater access to nature to the public, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has launched a booking system enabling visits to Ecological Trail Garden of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and South China Medicinal Plants Garden; Seac Pai Van Wetland; and the Ecological Trail in Avenida da Praia, Taipa since late 2020.

Free entry. More details on listed facilities, and bookings may be found here.

Go abroad, in Macao

London’s calling

Macao’s latest hospitality addition, The Londoner Macao, reimagines British history and culture amidst a contemporary setting.

The integrated resort will open progressively throughout 2021, encompassing all suite-hotels; celebrity-designed rooms; and London-themed dining options and attractions.

Indulge in Londoner Moments with fun and interactive Instagram installations; virtual rides in a London Black Cab with David Beckham; hearty welcomes by the Queen’s beloved corgi with the help of artificial intelligence; and do what the English do best – indulge in an exquisite high tea while capturing moments for the ‘gram.

Authentically Venetian

If you haven’t been to Venice, hop onto a gondola through the network of San Luca, Marco Polo and Grand Canals located at the Shoppes in Venetian Macao.

Be serenaded by gondoliers as they punt along the canals in a sheltered environment complete with impressive renaissance architecture, quaint bridges, and even a painted blue sky above you. Rides available daily from 11am to 10pm.

Tickets: Adults – MOP$135 (US$17), Children (up to 12 years of age) – MOP$103 (US$13)

Soar to new heights with the Golden Reel

Embrace breathtaking views at the world’s first, and Asia’s highest figure-8 ferris wheel, coined from a Hollywood-inspired tale of two asteroids careering through Studio City’s Art-Deco twin hotel towers.

Golden Reel is situated 130m above ground and comprises of 17 Steampunk-themed cabins that can accommodate up to 10 passengers each. If one is up for it, they may contemplate standing on the glass bottom panel.

Tickets: MOP$100 (US$13).

Tour the Red Market

Unmissable due to its redbrick façade which ultimately birthed its eponymous moniker, the Red Market (also known as Almirante Lacerda) is the oldest in Macao harking its beginnings to 1936.

Also one of the most popular, it draws everyday Macanese to chefs with its array of goods ranging from the freshest catch of the day – for its proximity to the docks – to earthy fresh vegetables and dried goods spanning across three stories.

While here, do also check out the precinct compromising of the Red Market Pedestrian Street lined with kiosks selling flowers; or shop for street food to trinkets at the bustling Three Lamps District.

The Red Market opens daily from 6am – 7pm.

Immerse in the Creative City of Gastronomy

Riquexo

With its walls adorned with photographs of old Macao, this charming, family-owned restaurant takes the cake among locals in search of authentic Macanese food.

Although the restaurant has been around for only 38 years, the city’s first Macanese restaurant’s repertoire consists of family favourites that have been handed down over generations.

While here, don’t miss their curry chicken, feijoada (black bean stew with beef and pork) and minchi (sautéed minced beef and/or pork) – comfort food for the locals, a gastronomic experience for visitors.

Riquexo opens daily from 12pm – 9.30pm.

Macanese culinary lessons

For the uninitiated, Macanese cuisine has been widely hailed as the world’s first fusion food, evolving from a blend of both Southern Chinese and Portuguese cuisine which evolved from colonial times.

Regarding herself as custodian to the preservation of Macanese food and culture, owner Ana Manhão organises cooking workshops for those who are keen to learn how to whip up wholesome Macanese dishes.

Belos Tempos opens daily from 12pm – 9pm. To find out about class openings and availability, check out their Facebook page.

For more travel updates and inspirations, follow Mak Mak Macao (Instagram), Stopover Macao (Facebook), Macao Moments (Twitter) or Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) website.

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SG-HK air travel bubble to take off on May 26

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