Who remembers the “one billion visitors by 2024” prediction? How about GeNose testing, the Special Tourist Visa and the Hong Kong-Singapore Air Travel Bubble?
It’s been a long two years of the pandemic, and various attempts have been made to revive travel in South East Asia. In Part 4 of the Two Years of Travel Disruption series, Gary & Hannah rewind through 2020 and 2021 to pick out the travel proposals, initiatives and experiments that didn’t get off the ground - or, if they did, faded from view.
En route, we recall Singapore’s “contract signing speed dating” project, a spurned sandbox in Cambodia and the absence of promised airline support in Thailand.
Plus, what happened to the Malaysia-Indonesia VTL, why did Indonesia backtrack on banning backpackers, and will there ever be an ASEAN Travel Corridor - or at least mutual recognition of vaccine certificates between the 10 member countries?