Travel in Asia-Pacific is trailing the rest of the world and should expect a bumpy recovery, a Booking.com executive says, with countries in the region slower to open borders than other destinations.
Given that those in North Asia are still largely restricting entry and countries in Southeast Asia are reopening cautiously, the region’s tourism recovery will not be quick, Laura Houldsworth, the online travel agency’s managing director for Asia-Pacific, said in an interview.
The region should also expect a hit from a drop in arrivals from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine triggered a spike in flight cancellations last month. Beach destinations in Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Maldives are usually popular among Russian tourists.
“Any of these situations will have people rethink their travel plans,” she said, noting that the conflict would have an impact on travel demand among Eastern Europeans in general.
Booking.com last week suspended its operations in Russia, joining a host of other Western firms aiming to isolate Moscow. The Amsterdam-based company had stopped all bookings to Russia, Houldsworth said, while outbound travel was expected to “depress significantly”.
Houldsworth says a recent flurry of reopenings in the region is cause for optimism, pointing to Australia, Cambodia and the Philippines, which have dropped quarantine requirements for vaccinated tourists. Vietnam will soon follow suit.
The Indonesian island of Bali on Monday (March 7) welcomed its first foreign tourists under similarly relaxed travel restrictions, having unexpectedly announced that quarantine rules would be revoked and the visa-on-arrival programme reinstated for travellers from 23 countries, including Australia, Japan, Singapore and the US.
Meanwhile, Thailand resumed its quarantine waiver in February, but local hotel operators have called for further easing, saying the entry process is still too onerous.
Destinations with less cumbersome entry rules will have an advantage, and countries that still have entry restrictions in place – such as South Korea, Japan and China – would be watching the impact of recent reopening programmes closely, Houldsworth said.
“The message is: Simpler the better for travellers,” she said.
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