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ASEAN travel certificates could remedy COVID woes
With ASEAN considering a digital vaccine certificate to revive tourism in the bloc, Cambodian business owners are hoping that it introduces special privileges for those inoculated.
Azmin Ali, Malaysia’s minister of International Trade and Industry, said last month that economics ministers had “deliberated the possibility of introducing a common digital vaccine certificate”.
In March, Thailand announced it would waive quarantine requirements for vaccinated foreign visitors arriving on the resort island of Phuket beginning in July.
Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, Phuket Tourist Association’s president, told Bloomberg that the decision could add more than $963 million to the economy, but that its success depends on agreements with other countries regarding free travel.
For Cambodia, tourism accounted for some 32.4 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, pro rata the highest among the ASEAN block, according to Hong Kong-based OECD.
Camboticket Founder Shivam Tripathi told Khmer Times that most visitors spend about seven days in Cambodia, primarily to see the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, with about half of all visitors travelling over land and the remainder choosing to fly, He added, “According to our data, European and North American visitors rarely make a trip to visit Cambodia exclusively. Instead, they consider their visit here to be a part of a larger circuit that includes Thailand and Vietnam.”
Tripathi’s booking portal, which saw record numbers prior to the pandemic, has been trying to come up with new and innovative ways to attract clients and has reached out to domestic travellers to mitigate the financial difficulties.
He noted though that domestic travellers are feeling a sense of “fatigue”, visiting the same destinations over and over again, whether it be to tourism-first Siem Reap or coastal provinces that have fared better during the pandemic.
However, with the Feb 20 event and the subsequent travel restrictions and curfew that followed, Tripathi said he is hoping the region will formulate a stronger, more comprehensive plan to entice visitors.
Travel and tourism contributed just over $393 billion to Southeast Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019. The ASEAN+3 Regional Outlook (AREO) projected last week that travel and tourism in the region will not recover until 2022 at the earliest.
“We already knew that the region is quite dependent on tourism and governments have made great efforts to interconnect countries via better border crossings and increased flight paths, but the industry has been set back by years,” said Tripathi.
“The best way to rebuild is by allowing those vaccinated to more easily travel between ASEAN countries and I hope that the governments seriously consider introducing some sort of special privileges to those who have taken the vaccine already,” he added.
Tripathi also stressed the ASEAN bloc should introduce programmes that make it easier for people who have been vaccinated over implementing strict mandatory quarantines for those who have not. He said that perhaps easing quarantine requirements for those who have been inoculated would help the industry recover. “There are a lot of businesses struggling, even some prominent ones. While fiscal stimulus packages are helpful, they can only take the industry so far. Coordinating efforts in Southeast Asia and even working with partners in Europe or North America is a long-term solution to an issue that has devastated economies across Asia,” Tripathi said.
In another development, Cambodia has launched a five-year roadmap for restoring the tourism sector, targetting at least 7 million international holidays makers visiting the Kingdom by 2025. The roadmap also aims to boost domestic tourism to at least 11 million trips by 2023.
The roadmap was signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and issued last week. Mr Hun Sen said “This roadmap shows a clear vision for the restoration and promotion of the tourism sector post-COVID-19 in Cambodia.” The roadmap was launched in conjunction with a master plan for tourism development in Siem Reap province for 2021 to 2035.
The Siem Reap plan aims to bring about $6 billion in revenue into the economy and develop areas around the province into quality tourism destinations.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50834216/asean-travel-certificates-could-remedy-covid-woes/