Post Pandemic Tourism and Travels: A Quick Look Back One Year After the Global Virus Spread
By Nadya Marshanda, Research Staff on ASEAN Connectivity of UGM ASEAN Society
As a part of people-to-people linkages, tourism undoubtedly plays a critical role in building connectivity in ASEAN. With many ASEAN residents relying on the sector, travel and hospitality also support our economic, political, and socio-cultural stability. In fact, according to a pre-pandemic prediction by The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism sector in Southeast Asia had the potential to grow to more than US$200 billion by 2025. In 2014, intra-regional tourism accounted for around 44% of the tourists. During the last decade, this number continues to rise at 8.9 percent per annum, which is also supported by the emerging of new “consuming class” residents.
However, the unexpected emergence of Covid-19 caused a severe disruption in several fields. Health, agriculture, fisheries, transport, tourism, and hospitality are among the worst affected ones. When early cases in member states were detected, immediate action to contain virus spread led to a massive decline in the tourism industry. The enactment of travel limitations, stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions, community-quarantine, or even lockdown has put their work field to a complete halt. Businesses and workers in the sectors directly feel the impact, as they cannot continue their economic activities.
Reckoning the fact that tourism accounted for 12.6% of ASEAN’s economy in 2018, the declining number of tourists causes massive consequences to ASEAN member states. Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand became some of the worst affected states, as their largest share of GDP, employment, and export values come from tourism. Countries like Indonesia and Vietnam also suffer a significant loss as both have the largest workforce in service sectors (excluding civil services, consecutively 57.5 million and 19.4 million). On the other hand, travel restriction from the pandemic’s epicentre, China, and its neighboring countries, Japan and Korea, was done by flight connection cancellation and tightening or even closing border crossing. The action caused a huge loss, compared to a pre-pandemic situation when China and Japan are among the top five county/regional sources of ASEAN visitors.
After months of battling with the pandemic, ASEAN member states are working to get back on their feet. Several countries that previously enacted strict restrictions during the early months of the pandemic — such as Singapore and Laos — have started to ease travel restrictions, especially on domestic tourism. On December 13th, The Health Ministry of Malaysia announced that they are reducing the quarantine period for overseas travelers from 14 days to 10. International students except those from the United Kingdom are also welcome to enter since January 1st, 2021.
However, the current success of some nations is still haunted by the possibility of a second Coronavirus wave. A new strain of Covid-19 that emerged in the UK and resurgence of cases in China remind the world that the fight against the pandemic has not ended yet. Among ASEAN Member States, , Indonesia and the Philippines are still battling against the rising number of new Covid-19 cases, especially since both countries have started to lift the restriction. In particular, Indonesia appears to favour the economy. Gathering and travel limitations have generally become less stringent, despite the high rate of new cases and deaths, harming the public health system and the economy. This difference of focus, approach, the capability of managing the pandemic, and post-pandemic adaptation between member states affect the feasibility of regional travel this year.
Despite the differences, ASEAN leaders have issued a joint agreement during the 37th ASEAN Summit to establish a travel bubble that may exempt essential travellers from COVID-19 quarantine restrictions . The hope of opening the corridor within the first quarter of 2021 is further expressed by the Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. Leaders also stressed the importance of clear policies that will help to build public trust — whether from domestic or international tourists — while providing a safe environment and guidelines for the workforce involved.
In the meantime, the post-COVID-19 Comprehensive Recovery Framework has included measures to explore creative and innovative solutions for the travel and tourism sector through using digital technologies. With a growing number of internet users, utilization of disruptive technologies (particularly mobile internet, big data, cloud technology, the Internet of Things, the automation of knowledge work, and the Social-Mobile-Analytics-Cloud (SMAC)) could have a major impact in the ASEAN economy, increasing regional GDP between $220 billion to $625 billion by 2030. In addition, digitization is neither shocking nor uncomfortable for people, since our lifestyle has evolved to adapt to the new health protocols during the early months of the pandemic. A survey by The World Travel & Tourism Council also unveils that 45% of travelers are prepared to shift from paper passports to digital identity.
Thus, the availability of low-cost internet access is crucial in supporting technology adoption. Policymakers must set out to provide both physical infrastructures, for example, fiber connections and mobile networks, along with the compatible legal infrastructure to overcome the possible issues related to digital data collection and management. This momentum also set off ASEAN’s journey in establishing more sustainable and resilient tourism through digitization. With the provision of the internet as a connectivity agent in the 4.0 industry era and adequate post-pandemic protocols, ASEAN will expectantly be able to revive the travel and tourism industry in the upcoming future.
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