Asia | Banyan

Restarting Asian tourism will be harder than shutting it down

Tourism-dependent economies are taking a cautious approach to reopening

CALL IT AN October surprise. Almost every day over the past two weeks countries across Asia have revealed plans to loosen pandemic-induced restrictions on inbound tourism. India went first, announcing on October 7th that it would at last resume issuing tourist visas for visitors from all countries on November 15th. Two days later Singapore expanded its quarantine-free travel lanes beyond just Germany and Brunei. Prayuth Chan-ocha, Thailand’s prime minister, said on October 11th that fully vaccinated tourists would be able to visit many parts of the country without quarantine from November 1st.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Learning how to be happy again”

Instant economics: The real-time revolution

From the October 23rd 2021 edition

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