Thailand
Cambodia: Resorts lay off workers with no end to Covid in sight
SE Asia’s tourism industry has been hit hard by the effects of Coronavirus and any improvement may be a long time coming. Hoteliers and tour groups from Bali to Phuket are suffering from the lack of foreign visitors and Cambodia’s tourist hotspots are proving no exception as a ban on foreign tourists continues.
Rumours of a lifting of the two-week quarantine for those arriving in the Kingdom have been quashed by the Tourism Ministry, which said an end to the restrictions is still far off. That may hit plans to reopen the country to tourists by the end of the year, with visitors reluctant to spend a fortnight confined to a hotel on arrival. With no foreign visitors to the region’s resorts, unemployment in the tourism industry is skyrocketing. Thailand lost 2 million jobs in the sector since the start of the pandemic, nearly half of them in the first half of this year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand. Almost one-third of tourism-related businesses have closed temporarily, it said. Thailand is hoping to reopen to tourists as early as July, by allowing vaccinated foreigners to stay on Phuket without quarantine, It wants to use the island as a model of how to get the industry back on its feet ahead of a full opening of the country’s borders in October. Around 20,000 bookings for holidays on Phuket have reportedly been made. Indonesia’s hopes of reopening Bali to visitors have been put on hold as infections rise in the country.
“We were targeting end of July, beginning of August, but we just have to be mindful of where we are in this recent spike,” Indonesia’s Tourism Minister, Sandiaga Uno, told the Reuters news agency. Infections on the island have risen fourfold in the past month. Indonesia has by far the highest number of infections among the 10 ASEAN nations, with nearly 2.2 million cases, according to a report. Thailand is the fourth hardest-hit with around 255,000 Coronavirus infections, while Cambodia is in seventh place, recording more than 49,000 cases. Neighbouring Vietnam has reported fewer than 17,000 cases but its tourism sector is also suffering the knock-on effects of the pandemic. Nine tenths of tourists reportedly cancelled tours in the past two months and the Hanoi Department of Tourism says 90 percent of tourism workers in the city are unemployed or working in different sectors, Vietnam News reported.
Cambodia’s tourism industry is unlikely to fully recover until the end of 2023, the Ministry of Tourism said. It is working to improve infrastructure and resorts to attract foreign visitors when the entry ban is lifted. Projects include a new airport for Phnom Penh and plans to develop Mondulkiri as a centre for ecotourism. One leading industry spokesman said the government has achieved a lot because of the fast pace of its vaccination campaign. “So far the Cambodian Government has done a great job about Covid-19 compared with many ASEAN countries,” said Thourn Sinan, the head of the Cambodia chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association. “However, the tourism industry can’t wait until Covid-19 has ended. Therefore we would like to request the government reopens the border, especially for vaccinated tourists, which is planned by the Ministry of Tourism in 4Q this year. This plan will help all in the tourism sector slowly start to recover the loss we have been facing within these two years. Another important thing the government should consider is to provide low or zero interest support loans to all in our tourism sector and industry as I believe many of us have run out of reserve funds,” he said.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50884775/resorts-lay-off-workers-with-no-end-to-covid-in-sight/