‘Travel Bubble’ – Path to Economic Recovery?

Nomoskar! I hope you all are safe and doing great. In today’s blog, I am going to share with you all the concept of Travel Bubble. Off late we have been reading all kinds of news regarding countries planning travel bubble to reopen and kickstart the travel and tourism industry to the world. I did a little bit of research and tried to understand if travel bubbles would decide where we travel next in 2020. I hope you all have an interesting read!

The concept of travel bubble came into light recently with the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania lifted the travel restrictions on May 15 for residents of these countries without quarantine measures. But if travellers from other countries come then they will have to stay in isolation for 14 days. With the pandemic sickening the travel and tourism industry countries are trying out different ways to gear up and get their economy under control. Other countries are also trying to follow this suit.

Travel Bubble is all about the collaboration and the connection of countries or states that have done a good job in containing the Coronavirus pandemic domestically. The basic idea of it is to allow the member countries of the group to travel freely and revive the travel and tourism sector. For example, a traveller from Estonia can visit Latvia without having to go for 14 days of isolation.

The travel industry is based on trust. As the general secretary of UNWTO said, ‘Trust is our new currency’. These are baby steps taken by the nations that are healthier in terms of less no. of deaths. But globally the calculation of risks and rewards vary. For some countries opening their borders for the US, who is still struggling with the virus, for the economic pressures while some are more considerate about the safety. Following the path of the Baltic countries, Australia and New Zealand are also planning on creating a bubble amongst themselves or a ‘corona corridor’ as you may like to term it. The different agencies like the border agencies, airports, health officials in both these countries are trying to find out ways that would let the travellers avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine. They hope the system would be running by sometime in September. Fiji, Costa Rica and Israel are clamouring to follow this route too. Denmark and Norway are opening to each other on June 15. But Sweden is excluded from this as the virus proliferated there following a looser lockdown. The traveller can be expecting new norms and protocols along with constant reminders of maintaining social distancing.

Amongst the Asian countries, The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), Thailand on Friday (12th June) approved a proposal for "travel bubbles" with selected countries that have shown they can effectively contain the coronavirus. (Source: Bangkok Post). They are looking at establishing bubbles with China, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. The travellers to Thailand from those member countries would not need quarantine measures but would need to go through complete health checks before and after arrival. They would also need to have valid medical insurance. China is considering to create a bubble with Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Going through these, it just came to my mind that is it not possible to create travel bubbles amongst states in India to boost Domestic Tourism. For example, the Northeast can create a bubble with Goa and Himachal. Or for that matter can Northeast not have a bubble with the Southeast Asian countries not immediately but in the coming months. This can give the needed fuel to start the engine of the travel industry. What say!

Lots of Love,

Ambalika