PATA has embarked on a search for a new CEO as the current chief Mario Hardy approaches the end of his term on May 31, 2021.
In an open call for applicants, PATA said the next CEO will “build upon the strong legacy of our association and lead us to further success and prosperity”.
PATA is look for the next CEO to lead the association into the future
The PATA CEO is a non-voting ex-officio member of the PATA Board and the PATA Executive Board, and shall have charge of the general management and business affairs of the association. To be based in Bangkok, he or she will provide strategic leadership to the association and represent the interests of the membership and industry through advocacy and actions at a regional and global level, among other responsibilities.
Singapore has suspended reciprocal green lane arrangements with Malaysia, South Korea and Germany for three months, due to a resurgence of Covid-19 cases worldwide.
The green lanes, which allow essential travel for business or official purposes, will be reviewed at the end of the three months, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Singapore shuts down reciprocal green lanes with Malaysia, South Korea and Germany
Travellers who have already obtained prior approval to enter Singapore can continue to do so.
The move will not affect Singapore’s Periodic Commuting Arrangement with Malaysia, which is set in place for longer-term work and business travel.
While Singapore has reciprocal green lanes with Japan and Indonesia, new applications have currently been put on hold due to infection concerns. Japan suspended all her business track arrangements earlier this month as the country entered a state of emergency.
Indonesia also announced a temporary ban on the entry of all foreign nationals on December 28. However, border closures to foreigners were recently extended from January 26 to February 8.
With this latest suspension, only the green lanes with Brunei and a few cities in China – Chongqing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang – remain open.
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan have scored the top three positions on Lowy Institute’s Covid Performance Index, which ranks 98 countries around the world based on their Covid-19 pandemic management.
The study, published on January 28, reviews countries with publicly available and comparable data on the virus, focusing on six measures across 36 weeks following their 100th confirmed case of Covid-19. Fourteen-day rolling averages of new daily figures were calculated for the following indicators: Confirmed cases, Confirmed deaths, Confirmed cases per million people, Confirmed deaths per million people, Confirmed cases as a proportion of tests, and Tests per thousand people.
New Zealand takes top spot for Covid-19 pandemic management performance; Mt Taranaki pictured
Findings determined that although the coronavirus outbreak started in China, countries in Asia–Pacific, on average, proved the most successful at containing the pandemic.
Among the top 10 performers, six are Asia-Pacific countries. Thailand, Australia and Sri Lanka rank fourth, eighth and 10th respectively.
Singapore takes 13th spot; Malaysia 16th; South Korea 20th; Myanmar 24th; Japan 45th; Nepal 70th; Philippines 79th; Bangladesh 84th; Indonesia 85th; and India 86th.
The Covid Performance Index also looked at how political systems, population size, and economic development have influenced the management of the pandemic.
Political systems
While the tools to contain the spread of Covid-19 have been common to most countries, the manner which governments convinced or compelled their citizens to adhere to these measures often reflected the nature of their political systems.
Despite initial differences, the performance of all regime types in managing the coronavirus converged over time. On average, countries with authoritarian models had no prolonged advantage in suppressing the virus. Indeed, despite a difficult start and some notable exceptions, including the US and the UK, democracies found marginally more success than other forms of government in their handling of the pandemic over the examined period. By contrast, many hybrid regimes, such as Ukraine and Bolivia, appeared least able to meet the challenge.
Population
Categorising countries based on their population size revealed the greatest differences in experiences with the pandemic. These results stand even after taking into account per capita indicators to evaluate performance, minimising the likelihood of a methodological bias against countries with more infections because they have larger populations. The fact that internal borders are often more open and porous than international borders may have facilitated the spread of the virus within countries with larger populations.
At the outset of the global pandemic, there was little discernible difference in country performance by population size. However, experiences between large, medium, and small populations diverged markedly less than a month after countries recorded their hundredth Covid-19 case. Smaller countries with populations of fewer than 10 million people consistently outperformed their larger counterparts throughout 2020, although this lead narrowed slightly towards the end of the examined period.
Economic development
The study noted that countries with higher per capita incomes had more resources available to fight the pandemic and performed better on average than developing countries for most of the crisis to date. More surprising is that many developing countries were able to cope with the initial outbreak of the pandemic and that advanced economies, as a grouping, lost their lead by the end of 2020 – with infections surging again in many places that had achieved apparent success in suppressing first waves of the pandemic.
Richer countries were quickly overwhelmed when the virus first emerged. International air travel accelerated virus transmission from abroad in these countries. By contrast, many governments in developing countries had more lead time – and often a greater sense of urgency – to put in place preventative measures after the scale and severity of the global crisis became known.
The relatively ‘low-tech’ nature of the health measures used to mitigate the spread of the virus to date, including large-scale lockdowns, may have created a more level playing field between developed and developing countries in the management of Covid-19. Despite this, the uneven deployment of the first vaccines against Covid-19 could give richer countries a decisive upper hand in crisis recovery efforts, and leave poorer countries fighting against the pandemic for longer.
For as long as I have been covering travel, tourism and business events news – just 15 short years – laments of talent shortage have never ceased. There was always not enough folks who were both educated or experienced and passionate enough to outlast the pressures of long hours, frequent travels, and more attractive salaries offered by other industries.
These laments will deepen because of the dire straits the pandemic has put the industry in, which has resulted in an exodus of talents through business closures, retrenchments and dampened spirits.
According to ACI Report 2021, an annual salary and employment trends study published by ACI HR Solutions, 24 per cent of the industry was made redundant in 2020, and nine per cent have yet to secure re-employment.
For some, the state of joblessness provides a rare time for rest and family reconnection. For others, it is a period of endless anxiety because from where will the next meal come?
This period of endless anxiety is not reserved just for displaced workers. Those holding on to their jobs are now shouldering additional loads in place of their retrenched colleagues while drawing a reduced wage. Half of 829 respondents from across Asia-Pacific and surrounding regions took a pay cut in 2020, with 36 per cent of them getting 25-50 per cent less income.
A depressing year for our industry has led 20 per cent of respondents to lose confidence in our industry. Even worse, 68 per cent of respondents plan to quit or exit the industry in the next 12 months, with 27 per cent open to exploring opportunities outside of the industry.
Kaye Chon, dean and chair professor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management, has often emphasised on the versatility of the hospitality expertise. Hospitality graduates and professionals are highly sought after by luxury retail companies, banks, medical services or any businesses that require a tender human touch.
For an industry that often says its success depends on its people, losing good people to despair and other industries is worrying. On the bright side, this crisis could be a turning point for the travel, tourism and business events profession.
There are some practices effected during lockdowns that can work great now and forever more, and not just for the multinational companies but also for small outfits. For example, working from home and supporting it with a proper structure; relegating less critical meetings to web format; flexi-hours with wage adjustments as an option; and a regular mental well-being programme.
Here’s one more – compulsory skills upgrading for all staff which counts towards their performance appraisal. If there is one thing this travel and tourism crisis has taught us, it is that constant innovation is critical. Skills and jobs can be made obsolete by new challenges which require creative, new solutions. Constant staff training could be a company’s insurance against redundancy.
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.
Alison Grün’s Harley-Davidson purrs into action. She scoots around the buzzy streets of downtown Kuala Lumpur, zipping past colonial-style buildings, vibrant wall murals and the iconic Petronas Twin Towers. Riding pillion on her Sportster 883cc is a young female on a half-day tour to discover the capital city’s hidden gems.
But Grün is not just another biker out on a joyride. She is a woman on a mission to use motorcycles as a vehicle to drive female empowerment and champion inclusive tourism development by creating touring job opportunities for local women riders.
The 35-year-old’s love affair with two-wheelers started as a child riding pillion on her dad’s Harley while growing up in France, with both her parents being part of a close-knit motorcycle club. But it wasn’t until her regional sales manager job brought her to Malaysia in early 2015 that she saw how motorcycling could liberate women weighed down by family and societal expectations.
Grün shared: “When I joined the Ladies of Harley Malaysia and connected with many women riders in the region, I felt inspired to see how motorcycling could emancipate them, bring some balance in their life, and gave them an opportunity to not only be themselves but also to have fun as women, not as mothers, corporate leaders, sisters, wives or daughters.”
When Grün lost her corporate job last year, it was this desire to propagate women empowerment through motorcycling that led to her setting up women-led motorbike tour company FreeW in June 2020.
The W stands for Women, Will and Wheels, and embodies the organisation’s aim to provide an ecosystem for women to step out of their comfort zones and realise their potential, and to build a sisterhood of sorts with fellow bikers across the globe. It aspires to provide local women with more enriching economic opportunities in tourism and motorsports. To that end, Grün also teaches women in Malaysia to ride two-wheelers to empower them to find more employment opportunities.
FreeW women’s riders night event where existing and aspiring riders get inspiration and support
FreeW’s roots, in actuality, go back to 2019.
Over the last few years, Grün has been undertaking off-road motorcycle tours in the Himalayas, both in India and Nepal, which ignited her interest and love for rural and community-based tourism.
Alison on a motorcycle road trip in Nepal in September 2019
“I was really touched by the women there. I was impressed by both their physical capabilities and mental resilience, and felt we had so much to learn from them. However, the language barrier and travelling with men, even though very fun, limited my ability to interact authentically with them,” she recalled.
“I suggested to the Nepali team to hire women tour guides as I’d love to come back with a group of female riders. I knew we’d appreciate an experience above the physical challenge, taking our time to enjoy impromptu interactions and reconnect with our womanhood. They looked at me in awe, saying there was no such thing in Nepal. ‘Why not?’ I said. That’s how it all started.”
Riding rough terrain
In December 2019, Grün worked with the Nepali team to design a tour that would not only take them to breathtaking landscapes, but also allow them to invest in local women’s economic empowerment through local craft classes and homestays.
That Nepal tour was slated to be held in April 2020 as FreeW’s first women-only tour, with a Nepalese woman rider to lead the tour with Grün and her team. Alas, the tour was put on ice when Malaysia went into its first lockdown in March 2020.
On the upside, the pandemic freed up Grün’s schedule so she could work on sharpening FreeW’s vision and crafting tours with women rider friends. Ongoing collaborations span the region, including one in India with Jai Bharathi from MoWo, a riding school empowering women through mobility; and another with Anne Cruickshanks from Myanmar Pure Travel. A tour in Iran, in partnership with Mahsa Homayounfar from Not Just a Tourist, is also on the cards.
Seeing also a huge market gap in motorcycle training classes in Malaysia – and how both safe riding skills and self-confidence on the road are prerequisites to hosting FreeW’s tours – Grün developed a training programme to coach women (and men) how to ride or boost their confidence on two wheels. The course has begun to gain “traction”, and Grün is in talks with driving schools to help them deliver corporate programmes.
Alison conducting an off-road motorcycle training course
“I also started doing my own motorcycle tours with my Harley-Davidson to give people an opportunity to experience that thrill, where I take passengers off the beaten path to discover Kuala Lumpur and its surroundings from a different perspective,” she said. “I’m hoping to give Malaysian women riders opportunities to do so too in the future.”
Alison hosting a guest on a motorcycle tour around Kuala Lumpur
Over the last few months, Grün has conducted about 10 personalised tours – a figure she calls “encouraging”, given that Malaysia was placed under movement curbs for a good portion of the time. Prevailing travel restrictions, however, have posed a major speed bump for her overseas road trips. While about 25 women have signalled their interest in the various FreeW tours, uncertainties around the pandemic and ever-evolving travel rules restrain them from making any definite bookings.
Still, that has not stopped Grün from planning her 2021 tour line-up in Nepal, Myanmar and India, hoping to do at least some recce rides. Roping in locally-based women riders to run these tours, she will work with them remotely to adapt the tour to the local environment.
Currently, she is also in discussions with women riders in several Asian countries – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Pakistan – to conceptualise and lead FreeW tours. “In Malaysia, I want to strengthen the motorcycling classes offering, organise more events, and train other women riders interested in sharing their motorcycle passion with others, as tour guides or riding coaches,” she said, adding that corporate partnerships will also be a key focus to accelerate growth in 2021.
A week-long tourism advertising blitz has kicked off across Australia this week, aimed at getting locals to book domestic holidays to give the sector a badly-needed boost.
Running from January 31 to February 6, 2021, the A$5 million (US$3.8 million) campaign is the latest burst of activity as part of Tourism Australia’s Holiday Here This Year campaign, which encourages domestic travel in order to support tourism operators and communities across the country.
Latest US$3.8m marketing push is the first major activation of Tourism Australia’s Holiday Here This Year campaign for 2021
It features Australian destinations, tourism products and experiences, including areas impacted by last summer’s bushfires. The week of activity combines event sponsorships, publisher-created content and in-programme editorial integration as well as national advertising running across key television programmes, online and print, and 2,500 outdoor ads.
Minister for trade, tourism and investment Dan Tehan said the campaign is part of the government’s ongoing support for the tourism industry.
“We want Australians to get excited about holidaying in Australia. Our country is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and this year is an opportunity for Australians to discover why,” he said.
“This nation-wide advertising blitz will inspire Australians to plan and book their next domestic getaway in the weeks and months ahead. Domestic tourism is worth A$100 billion to the Australian economy and our tourism industry supports more than 621,000 local jobs.”
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said that with many Australians returning to work, now was the perfect time to provide them with the inspiration and ideas to book their next holiday.
“Summer is typically the busiest time for our tourism industry, with many operators relying on the revenue generated during this period to support them throughout the year. But as a result of the challenges that we’ve continued to face across the country, for many tourism businesses, this holiday season unfortunately hasn’t gone to plan so far,” she said.
“Despite the recent disruptions, consumer confidence remains high with many Australians keen to take a break and get out and explore their own backyard. This campaign is all about capitalising on this pent-up demand by providing those people with all the content and inspiration they need to convert this desire and yearning for a holiday into actual bookings.
As part of the nationwide initiative, Tourism Australia is also encouraging the industry to coordinate an aligned advertising push across their own marketing and social media channels during the same period.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a series of virtual reality tours to four destinations across Thailand – Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Surat Thani.
The tours, which are immersive 360-degree adventures that allow visitors to explore the attractions in 3D, are accessible via individual links on the Tourism Thailand Virtual Tours main page.
Visitors can now virtually tour the Thewarat Sapharom Hall in Bangkok from the comfort of home
After clicking on the link, visitors are led directly to the attraction. Icons on the bottom left allow for viewing floorplans and for navigation, while other functions let visitors view in VR or share with friends on social media.
Once inside an attraction, visitors can move around using the cursor, while some of the attractions have information about its historical background or details of items on display in both English and Thai.
In Bangkok, the Mekhala Ruchi Pavilion lets visitors virtually explore the two-storey teak wood building, which was the residence of King Rama VI while Phayathai Palace was under construction. Meanwhile, the virtual tour of Thewarat Sapharom Hall showcases the elegant interior of the palace’s throne hall, and the Phiman Chakri Hall stands out for its iconic turret.
In Chiang Mai, visitors can dive deep into a virtual visit of Phra Chao Tan Chai Ma Tam Na Bun Chapel or the Big Reclining Buddha at Wat Chedi Luang. There is also a tour of Phra Maha That Chedi for the 12 astrological signs and Phra Chao Pun Ton. The final two attractions in Chiang Mai include the statue of Khruba Chao Teung Na Ta Si Lo and Ma Tam Na Bun Chapel.
In the southern region, there are virtual tours of Chedi Khao Hua Chuk in Surat Thani and Chinpracha House in Phuket.
The virtual reality tours give visitors a bird’s-eye view of these famous attractions, allowing them to move around simply by clicking on points of interest. They are designed to inspire wanderlust and encourage armchair travellers to visit the landmarks in future.
Fliggy, Alibaba’s online travel platform, has inked a multi-year agreement with Amadeus to deliver more personalised traveller shopping experiences.
The agreement will enable Fliggy to leverage Amadeus’ search and assisted booking technology to offer more customised products and services to its customers, and create a more seamless user experience.
Chinese travel platform Fliggy adopts Amadeus MetaConnect to provide superior shopping experience
Since partnering with Amadeus in 2015, Fliggy has seen a steady growth of travel bookings on its platform, with the Hangzhou-based travel platform now servicing more than 100,000 global partners.
Amadeus’ advanced search technology has also been critical in supporting high volumes of traffic and transactions on Fliggy’s platform during China’s “Double Eleven” shopping festival each year.
Lunar New Year domestic travel is weak in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines, with the exception of Singapore
Movement restrictions and infection concerns have lowered travel priority
Sellers resort to unique products and programmes to encourage spend
Lunar New Year celebrations in South-east Asia this year will be a mere shadow of past years, the sombre mood a result of movement restrictions that are still in place to curb local transmissions as well as consumers’ concerns about infections.
In Malaysia and Hong Kong where authorities and their people are battling new waves of infections, festive holiday bookings for the Year of the Ox have been elusive for travel suppliers.
Traditional Lunar New Year activities are off the calendar this year, and the mood for domestic travel is poor
Malaysia is presently enforcing a ban on interstate and inter-district travel, which requires residents to keep within a 10km radius of one’s home. People are encouraged to stay at home unless it is vital to travel, while all social activities are prohibited. This ban has been extended to February 4, and the Health Ministry will make a decision by then on whether to tighten or ease the enforcement.
Should restrictions be eased in time for the Lunar New Year, Malaysian tourism players believe that business could turn around.
There is also an unusually quiet lead-up to the Lunar New Year celebrations in Hong Kong, with major cultural and leisure attractions shut since December 2 and the 2021 Lunar New Year Fireworks Display and Lantern Carnivals cancelled. Gatherings of more than two people in public places remain prohibited.
Traditionally a peak travel season in the Philippines, this year’s business boom is non-existent.
Rajah Tours president Jojo Clemente blames it on the fear of travel. “(Travel) is not a priority for most right now,” he remarked.
Sharing similar observations, Simon Ang, managing director-operations with Celebrate TLC, said his largely trans-generational family groups that travel during the Lunar New Year are choosing to “wait for this (pandemic) to be over than expose (their elderly family members) to the possibility of contracting Covid-19”.
While some Filipino-Chinese are travelling, the numbers are not “what we are accustomed to”, noted Clemente. For those who dare venture out, they are choosing to stay at high-end properties.
Bernadette de Leon, general manager of Amiable Intertours, who has seen zero bookings for the Lunar New Year, estimates that only 30 per cent of Filipino-Chinese would take domestic vacations in the run up to the festival. Most would head to upmarket resorts like Balesin and those in Palawan.
She expects the majority to go abroad, especially to the US due to low season airfares and to countries without winter, like Australia, New Zealand and the Maldives.
Clemente: travel is not a priority now
This initial market performance forebodes what is in store for tourism this year.
“Based on what’s happening to (the pandemic and vaccination progress), I believe that 1Q2021 will be just like 2020. The slump will probably (turn around) mid-year and a very, very slow recovery will happen towards the end of 2021,” projected Ang, who added that travel agents could continue to suffer while hotels could “get by” with staycations and quarantine programmes.
Some Indonesian travel agents are also writing off Lunar New Year business, as massive celebrations in destinations with large Chinese communities, such as Medan, Pontianak, Singkawang and Bangka-Belitung, are taken off the calendar.
Pauline Suharno, managing director of Elok Tour, said: “This is usually a time for Indonesian Chinese communities to go to their home towns to celebrate, but it has been quiet so far this year.”
Although the long weekend – with the most important days of the festival running from February 12 to 15 – is encouraging some traffic to tourist areas in North Sumatera, travel agents have not been able to benefit from it. Christine Kowandi, tour manager of Horas Tour Medan, explained that most of these vacationers are from the surrounding areas, and they do not need the services of travel consultants.
Domestic travellers going direct to hotels have allowed select hotels to enjoy a busy festive period despite losing international visitors to travel restrictions.
Swiss-Belinn Singkawang is one of the lucky few, having drawn strong bookings for the long weekend, according to Harshanty Kaloko, regional director of public relation and promotions, Swiss-Belhotel International Indonesia.
A different story in Singapore
Singapore’s low community transmission records have allowed residents to enjoy social activities, albeit with necessary precautions. As a result, tourism suppliers that TTG Asia spoke to have reported brisk business this holiday season.
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore and Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel are both enjoying stronger staycation demand this year compared to previous years. For the former, the first few days of the festival are the busiest and most of the bookings are by families with young children, revealed a Shangri-La Hotel Singapore spokesperson.
Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel is seeing stronger staycation business this year
Over on the attractions side, Wildlife Reserves Singapore is upbeat about visitation numbers, as its zodiac-themed activities are often a hit with families.
Performance this year is especially promising as the Lunar New Year holiday weekend will segue into Valentine’s Day, noted a spokesperson, who added that admission ticket purchases typically surge closer to the date of visit.
Creative sell is key
Tourism businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore that are allowed to remain open have devised creative ways to keep some business coming.
In Hong Kong, the soon-to-open Hotel Alexandra is planning a series of festive delicacies for dine-in and take-away as well as a Valentine’s Day set menu since the day of romance coincides with the third day of the Lunar New Year.
Ngong Ping 360 will continue to run its cable car service and have most of its shops and restaurants in Ngong Ping Village open although the indoor attraction remains shut. To attract visitors, Ngong Ping Village will be decked in Lunar New Year splendour as part of the attraction’s Fortune Walks in 360 themed activities. Furthermore, purchases made during the festive period will enter customers into a lucky draw to win prizes such as Nintendo Switch.
A Ngong Ping 360 spokesperson told TTG Asia that bookings for the Lunar New Year period is yet unknown, as tickets can only be sold 14 days ahead. However, he expects the celebratory activities as well as improved transportation access to Ngong Ping 360 to bring good footfalls.
In Singapore, the local domestic travel scene is teeming with Lunar New Year specials to encourage expenditure in place of impossible overseas vacations. These promotions range from hotel staycation deals and take-home dining specials to combat restaurant capacity limits, to Lunar New Year themed guest experiences at attractions.
Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel’s resident manager Alvin Lim attributes the good staycation take-up to the hotel’s array of room packages. The hotel has packages built for families and couples as well as for foodies and those seeking retail therapy. The hotel is also looking to reel in stronger F&B earnings through unique dining experiences themed around the Lunar New Year, from special course meals to festive takeaways.
Ankole cattle at the Singapore Zoo will help to reel in visitors for Year of the Ox celebrations
While visitor programmes at Wildlife Reserves Singapore have to be adjusted to abide by safe management measures, which have resulted in the removal of lion and dragon dance performances as well as meet-and-greet sessions, the group has initiated creative alternatives. Some of the highlights this year include a five-course festive dining experience at the River Safari with giant pandas, curated for permissible group sizes; and a trail to concoct a nutritional festive treat for the Singapore Zoo’s Ankole cattle to align with the Year of the Ox. Various themed activities and limited-edition merchandise are also offered across the four wildlife parks.
Christina Cheng, general manager of Hotel Alexandra, stressed the need for creative revenue options while the travel bans remained in place. “We will continue to stay positive (about) recovery this year, and will keep abreast of transitions and provide attractive experiences (to spur) recovery,” she concluded. – Additional reporting by Mimi Hudoyo, S Puvaneswary, Rosa Ocampo and Prudence Lui
Changing travel patterns and reduced traffic throughout the pandemic have forced changes in travel distribution, driving a greater need for flexible bookings, altered products and consolidation of operations to cope with strained resources.
In this new episode of TTG Conversations: Five questions video series, which kicks off the 2021 February season, Mieke De Schepper, managing director Asia-Pacific and executive vice president online travel at Amadeus, said travel suppliers would have to be quick to tune their business to opportunities and focus on the way forward.
She highlights available technology that could help the travel and tourism community rebuild traveller confidence and evolve their operations for the better.
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan have scored the top three positions on Lowy Institute’s Covid Performance Index, which ranks 98 countries around the world based on their Covid-19 pandemic management.
The study, published on January 28, reviews countries with publicly available and comparable data on the virus, focusing on six measures across 36 weeks following their 100th confirmed case of Covid-19. Fourteen-day rolling averages of new daily figures were calculated for the following indicators: Confirmed cases, Confirmed deaths, Confirmed cases per million people, Confirmed deaths per million people, Confirmed cases as a proportion of tests, and Tests per thousand people.
Findings determined that although the coronavirus outbreak started in China, countries in Asia–Pacific, on average, proved the most successful at containing the pandemic.
Among the top 10 performers, six are Asia-Pacific countries. Thailand, Australia and Sri Lanka rank fourth, eighth and 10th respectively.
Singapore takes 13th spot; Malaysia 16th; South Korea 20th; Myanmar 24th; Japan 45th; Nepal 70th; Philippines 79th; Bangladesh 84th; Indonesia 85th; and India 86th.
The Covid Performance Index also looked at how political systems, population size, and economic development have influenced the management of the pandemic.
Political systems
While the tools to contain the spread of Covid-19 have been common to most countries, the manner which governments convinced or compelled their citizens to adhere to these measures often reflected the nature of their political systems.
Despite initial differences, the performance of all regime types in managing the coronavirus converged over time. On average, countries with authoritarian models had no prolonged advantage in suppressing the virus. Indeed, despite a difficult start and some notable exceptions, including the US and the UK, democracies found marginally more success than other forms of government in their handling of the pandemic over the examined period. By contrast, many hybrid regimes, such as Ukraine and Bolivia, appeared least able to meet the challenge.
Population
Categorising countries based on their population size revealed the greatest differences in experiences with the pandemic. These results stand even after taking into account per capita indicators to evaluate performance, minimising the likelihood of a methodological bias against countries with more infections because they have larger populations. The fact that internal borders are often more open and porous than international borders may have facilitated the spread of the virus within countries with larger populations.
At the outset of the global pandemic, there was little discernible difference in country performance by population size. However, experiences between large, medium, and small populations diverged markedly less than a month after countries recorded their hundredth Covid-19 case. Smaller countries with populations of fewer than 10 million people consistently outperformed their larger counterparts throughout 2020, although this lead narrowed slightly towards the end of the examined period.
Economic development
The study noted that countries with higher per capita incomes had more resources available to fight the pandemic and performed better on average than developing countries for most of the crisis to date. More surprising is that many developing countries were able to cope with the initial outbreak of the pandemic and that advanced economies, as a grouping, lost their lead by the end of 2020 – with infections surging again in many places that had achieved apparent success in suppressing first waves of the pandemic.
Richer countries were quickly overwhelmed when the virus first emerged. International air travel accelerated virus transmission from abroad in these countries. By contrast, many governments in developing countries had more lead time – and often a greater sense of urgency – to put in place preventative measures after the scale and severity of the global crisis became known.
The relatively ‘low-tech’ nature of the health measures used to mitigate the spread of the virus to date, including large-scale lockdowns, may have created a more level playing field between developed and developing countries in the management of Covid-19. Despite this, the uneven deployment of the first vaccines against Covid-19 could give richer countries a decisive upper hand in crisis recovery efforts, and leave poorer countries fighting against the pandemic for longer.