Time for Singapore to scrap quarantine for all vaccinated travellers, says Wego’s Veitch
FOR travel executives based in Singapore, the first significant reopening of its borders announced over the weekend couldn’t have come sooner and while they welcomed it, the general sentiment is it needs to be accelerated and further simplified.
Ross Veitch, CEO and co-founder of Wego, said, “As the CEO of a Singapore based company with all of our users, clients and partners overseas, not being able to travel away from Singapore without having to quarantine upon return has been particularly difficult so I applaud the announcement of the new VTLs and the simplified testing regime and hope to see more routes added soon.
“That said, I think it’s time for Singapore to scrap quarantine requirements for all vaccinated travellers arriving in Singapore from all countries except from those where there is a new variant of concern circulating.
“Quarantines of inbound travellers made sense as part of a zero-Covid strategy but now that Covid is endemic in Singapore as it is pretty much everywhere, the marginal benefit of catching a few additional inbound cases is far outweighed by the massive costs of keeping Singapore cut-off from the world. We could keep the VTL’s pre-flight and upon arrival testing regime in place and this would serve to catch most cases but enable travel to get back to something like normal.”
Dan Lynn, co-founder and co-CEO of ZUZU Hospitality, who has been closely following reopening trends in the region, said, “This week’s news was a long awaited and welcome small step. Although there is still much to criticise in the achingly slow step-by-step approach to restarting the local travel industry, at least steps are now being taken, in the right direction, and at a slightly accelerating pace.
“This gives hope that the remaining barriers to travel can be lifted much more quickly, opening up to the 90% of the world that Singapore is still closed off to, freeing up families to travel, and welcoming back estranged friends.
“Around the region, in Thailand and Indonesia, we are also seeing steps forward, and hope these will all be accelerated, and follow a common, and much simpler path forwards.”
There are now 11 VTLs in place – Germany and Brunei were the first, followed by South Korea (from November 15), and Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States from October 19. PCR tests have been reduced from four to two, one pre-departure and one on arrival.
It’s not a full reopening by any means – up to 3,000 travellers will initially be allowed to enter Singapore daily from all 11 VTL countries, said Transport Minister S Iswaran – all part of Singapore’s “cautious and step-by-step manner” to help “reclaim and rebuild” Singapore’s status as an international aviation hub with global connectivity, said Changi Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
According to CAAS, 179 vaccinated travel passes have been issued to travellers from Brunei and 4,497 from Germany for travel to Singapore between September 8 and November 12 this year, with 1,926 people on such passes from both countries entering the country as of Friday. There were only two COVID-19 cases among these travellers, both of which were detected through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests they took upon arrival at Changi Airport.
“We will monitor the incidence rate, observe the demand, before deciding on any further increases in capacity,” the minister was quoted.
It is also hard to see how these VTLs could have any significant impact on inbound travel – local restrictions are still in place on life in Singapore, with only two people allowed to dine together and visitors to households limited to two still. It is hoped as Singapore moves towards endemic living with Covid, these restrictions will be lifted so that it can be at its best as a destination for inbound travellers who will have the world to explore as other regions open up faster.
Bertrand Saillet, managing director of FCM Travel, Asia, was most enthusiastic about the South Korean VTL. “After the announcement of the Germany Vaccinated Travel Lane, we saw an uplift of 89% in bookings to Germany; considering that pre-Covid FCM saw a higher volume of travel to South Korea than Germany, we are expecting an even greater increase in bookings to South Korea.
“South Korea has also typically been a popular leisure destination for Singaporeans. Before the pandemic less than 5% of trips booked by FCM have been leisure or bleisure trips, in September 15% of trips booked to Germany had been for leisure or business combined with leisure so we expect a greater proportion of trips to incorporate personal travel once the VTL agreement with South Korea is in place.
“One of the exciting aspects of the agreement with South Korea is that it is the first bilateral travel corridor open within Asia. This will boost regional trips which have been depressed in recent months due to restricted borders, allowing greater trade within the continent.”
IATA commented, “Singapore’s experience from the vaccinated travel lane with Germany and Brunei has clearly given the country the confidence to expand the scheme.
“This is a positive and promising development for the aviation and travel sector. The easing of the testing regime for vaccinated travellers on vaccinated travel lanes from four to two PCR tests will reduce travel costs. That’s an equally important and positive factor. These data-based decisions to open up borders progressively will certainly boost air travel recovery. IATA welcomes it.
“We look forward to more of such progressive and positive developments that will help to restart air travel. From the experience we have seen in other parts of the world, including Europe and the US, relaxation of travel restrictions have led to improvements in the travel market and is good for airlines and travel businesses.
“We recognise that the Asia Pacific region has a different risk appetite, partly owing to lower vaccination rates in many parts of the region, but we hope this further easing of measures and expansion of Singapore’s border reopening will spur other markets to similarly navigate their pathways towards restarting air travel.”
It said that it hoped this step would give other Asia Pacific states confidence to hasten the reopening of their borders. “International passenger demand is forecast to reach only about 44% of pre-COVID-19 levels in 2022, so the journey to recovery for the aviation sector will be long, but positive strides forward in the restart will bring further confidence,” it noted.
Note: Dan Lynn and Ross Veitch are speaking at a panel at WiT Experience Singapore on October 19 when they will pitch a solution for reopening of travel in Asia Pacific.
