Quarantine free travel between Singapore and Indonesia starts
Why travel between countries need to restart?
Without any travel, there are no demand for flights, followed by accommodation, followed by tourism revenues and support for employment which will in turn also drive up the consumption of goods and services. Of course when this keep moving, more businesses will do well. Indirectly, the property market will also get the support it needs too.
The prediction for international travel is not so rosy. It ranges from 2024 or later for the international travel to go back to pre-COVID-19. Even for Asia, this was the prediction about tourism which is definitely part of international travel too. Fitch Ratings says Asia Pacific tourism recovery will be slow. I disagree (click to read)
Whether it’s good or bad, are we ready and prepared?
Well, a coin always have both sides. We can choose to see the positive side or the negative side yeah. If recovery is slow, are there opportunities to tap in the mean time? If recovery is fast, are we prepared already to ride the recovery? Actions are everything yeah, whatever we believe.
Now we have another positive development between the biggest and the most economically advanced country here in ASEAN; Indonesia and Singapore.
Article in themalaysiareserve.com Quarantine-free travel has restarted between Singapore and the nearby Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan starting 24th January 2021. This travel bubble arrangement is opened to fully-vaccinated and insured visitors. This arrangement covers people traveling by sea between Singapore and Nongsapura Ferry Terminal in Batam and Bintan Telani Port.
Before Covid-19 pandemic started, Batam and Bintan were popular weekend getaways for Singapore residents. Since then, the overseas visitors to the two Indonesian islands dropped by 86% back in 2020. Please do read the full article here: Article in themalaysiareserve.com
Living with or without Covid-19?
Someone mentioned that Malaysia should just have lockdowns and ensure the Covid-19 cases drop down to negligible levels prior to reopening the economy. Erm… by then, is there still an economy to reopen? Economically speaking, did anyone read about all those predictions about SMEs closing down because of lockdowns? Not every business can pivot to online and truth is, buying online may NOT be supporting the local economy at all.
We need to continue to manage Covid-19 and live with it in our midst for some time to come. If there are clusters, lockdown should be implemented for that area / neighbourhood. We need to balance this because when livelihood is affected, then lives will be affected too.
Hopefully, we continue to contain the current numbers and within ASEAN we should have more travel bubbles too. Perhaps even an ASEAN travel bubble when situation allows. I look forward to that and is likely to be one of the people who will travel to some other countries when it is allowed. Happy anticipating.
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