Travel Bubble: A step towards economic recovery

A travel bubble, also known as a travel bridge or 'corona corridor', is an exclusive partnership between countries believed to have their COVID-19 situation contained to open their borders for one another and allow for safe travels for their citizens.

There are certain guidelines in place to ensure smooth process but generally travellers can move around freely within these zones without having to under-go quarantine upon their arrival.

As early as May 2020, China and Korea have already established a travel corridor between the two nations for travel to selected cities, including Seoul and Shanghai.

China is also looking to expand its travel bubble to include Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Macau into the safe zone.

The government of Japan has made arrangements for certain countries to enter their borders and is looking to expand the number of countries soon.

Citizens of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Brunei are allowed entry via a Residence Track while those from Singapore are to enter via a Business Track.

Among the requirements for entry include a new visa application and daily temperature check 14-days prior to the departure.

European countries had exempted many countries from travel restrictions within the region. The European Union had also created a list of safe third-countries to reopen their borders gradually and partially for non-essential travel from outside the block.

With the region suffering a rise in infections over the past few months, the first Baltic travel bubble established in May between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania burst just last month as Latvia mandated a 14-day quarantine on everyone arriving from Estonia.

Australia and New Zealand are among the first countries in the Asia-Pacific region to loosen restrictions on international travel.

On October 16th, the two countries’ first travel bubble came into effect with New Zealanders being allowed to visit New South Wales and Northern Territory in Australia.

While they are looking to expand the travel bubble to other states with the Trans-Tasman Travel Bubble still in discussion, the current arrangement only offers a one-way quarantine free trip for New Zealanders travelling to Australia and not the other way around.

India has listed many countries under its “Air Transport Bubbles”, a temporary arrangement between two countries aimed at restarting commercial passenger services.

These countries include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Maldives, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America.

Singapore has unilaterally opened its borders to Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Germany, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam

Singapore and Hong Kong also recently announced an in-principle agreement to set up an air travel bubble between the two aviation hubs where travellers will be allowed to move around without quarantine, stay-home notice requirements or a controlled itinerary.

The republic's Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung reportedly said that Singapore is keen to have a similar arrangement with Malaysia when the time is right.

According to the World Tourism Organisation, international tourism receipts which is the spending by international tourists globally has dropped between $910 billion and $1.2 trillion this year, setting the global tourism industry back by 20 years.

In Malaysia, the first half of 2020 alone has seen a dropped of 4.25 million tourist arrivals as compared to 13.3 million tourist arrivals in the same period in 2019.

The idea of a travel bubble is essentially to promote international tourism in a controlled and safe manner by agreeing for cross border travel between countries that are deemed safe from the threat of the virus while remaining borders to all other countries closed.

While the concept of travel bubble is adapted by many countries as a significant step in economic recovery, there is potential danger in prioritizing this sector of the economy ahead of health and safety risks as a spike in cases are likely to happen once people can move around with less monitoring.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said that travel bubbles will not be implemented for the time being for fear of the rise of COVID-19 cases.

The plan that has been in the works for several months and initially focused on safer destinations at the time such as Australia, Brunei, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, has been put on hold as the ministry focuses on promoting domestic tourism.

However, Director General of Tourism Malaysia Datuk Musa Yusof has said that cross-border travel for leisure will begin in stages sometime in the first quarter of 2021 on the pre-condition that the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia remains under control.

In August, Malaysia established the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) and Periodic Commuting Arrangement (PCA) with Singapore with the RGL allowing cross-border travel for essential business and official purposes, and the PCA for long-term immigration pass holders from the two countries to travel for business and work purposes.