The fully immunized tourist market

With vaccinations ongoing and more people, especially in rich countries, acquiring immunity to COVID-19, travel is once again on the bucket list of the rich and adventurous. Getting on a plane to enjoy exotic sights or rejuvenate in pristine surroundings isn’t going to be easy, though, at least if your destination is anywhere in Asia.

For many Asian countries that rely on tourism to bring in sizeable revenues for their economies, preparations for reopening have been in the works for some time. The Philippines is no exception, although tourism officials may have to twiddle their thumbs for a longer time to actually get inbound tourism levels back to even half of pre-pandemic levels.

For one, no concrete steps have been laid out to welcome fully vaccinated tourists or those who can show proof of COVID-19 immunity. With border entry requirements changing by the day, fully immunized holiday travelers are understandably avoiding this region.

Quarantine requirements also come and go, something that vaccinated tourists don’t want to be bothered with. On the other hand, many governments in the region still have no foolproof way of trusting vaccination passports that vouch for a traveler’s COVID-19 immunity.

With infections rising even in countries like Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong – which previously held admirable case records, earlier plans to lift travel bans and ease travel requirements have been put on hold, prompting fully vaccinated tourists to look elsewhere.

Regained freedom to travel

To date, over 800 million people in the world have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and in the next weeks will be able to secure a certificate of immunity, which would allow them the freedom to go for that dream summer vacation abruptly curtailed last year by the pandemic.

The number is still way below the 1.45 billion tourist arrivals chalked in 2019, but the fast rollout of effective vaccines and the consequential drop in infections in countries where over 50 percent of the population have already received at least one dose are encouraging signs.

More Americans and Europeans who have successfully gone through the vaccination cycle are looking forward to the summer break, and many of them are not too caring about whether the virus surge in their vacation destination is serious as long as they are allowed no-fuss entry.

France and Spain, which were the top destination choices in 2019, have adopted some form of screening based on traffic lights – red, amber, green – that would allow travellers from European countries, as well as outside the bloc, to recognize their risk status.

Both countries have reopened more visa counters in “green” countries like Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and China (including Hong Kong and Macao). A number of third countries have also recently been included, like the US, in the list.

Specific to Spain, starting June 7, any vaccinated traveller with one of the approved vaccines by the European Medicines Agency from any country would be allowed entry.

It bears noting that France and Spain, even after being crippled by high infection rates and deaths last year, are still experiencing thousands of new cases a day comparable to our ratios if measured against total population.

Tailor-fit border controls

What France and Spain are doing bears close examination by our tourism officials, and useful lessons in border control tailored to a growing vaccinated tourist population in Europe and the US may be applied in the not-too-distant future.

In the same way, we can forget any travel enticement programs targeting tourists from countries that still have low immunization levels like Australia and New Zealand because of our inadequate pandemic control responses and vaccine supply-hampered immunization drive.

Focused immunity destinations

The positive value of having a large part of your population immunized against COVID-19 is no longer debatable. Cities in the US, which currently holds one of the highest ratios of vaccinated people in the world, are reopening with abandon.

New York City is even encouraging the entry of vaccine tourists, people of means and determination who are given visas for the sole or one purpose of getting a vaccine shot – and there are many takers given the scarcity of vaccines in their home countries.

This column is not proposing having this focused immunity destination, though. The Philippines is far from achieving the high ratios of vaccination that Israel and the US have accomplished, and will not likely reach that herd immunity aspiration any time soon.

We should, however, look at how best to appropriate the scarce supply of vaccines we are getting, especially now that most recipients in the priority lists (frontline workers, senior citizens, and people with co-morbidities) have been covered.

Expanding the availability of vaccines to more people who need to work is a step in the right direction. For the tourism sector, determining priority areas where vaccination will allow a safe level of opening up for foreign tourists should be seriously considered.

Boracay and Bohol’s Panglao Island, for example, should be considered as areas where the tourism bubble theory can be put to test. The areas are small enough to allow our tourism and border officials to put in the proper resources that can ensure that only the immunized are allowed to enjoy these coveted travel destinations.

Refinements and improvements can be added along the way. Opening other similar tourist destination bubbles in the future could also be considered. The fully immunized tourist market is all too eager to travel and spend, having been cooped up too long.

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