Australia-New Zealand Resume Quarantine Exemption Mutual Travel
Singapore also introduces’vaccine passport’ from next month
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Ahead of the peak tourist season, measures are being taken to resume’safe’ overseas travel around the world. Australia and New Zealand, which are considered exemplary countries to quarantine the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), resume mutual travel without quarantine period, and Singapore allows foreign travelers with digital vaccine passports to enter the country.
According to the US economic broadcaster CNBC on the 6th (local time), New Zealand Prime Minister Jeokshinda Aden announced that the’Travel Bubble’ with Australia will begin on the 19th. Travel bubble is an agreement between countries that exempts the self-isolation of inbound travelers and allows free travel. Prime Minister Arden said that the two neighboring countries agreed to carry out travel without quarantine, and that it was the first in the world to implement Travel Bubble. However, the BBC explained that Taiwan and Palau were the first countries to implement Travel Bubble, not New Zealand and Australia.
The biggest reason the two countries were able to agree on Travel Bubble is that the spread of Corona 19 has been stably caught. New Zealand is evaluated as a model country for COVID-19 quarantine for its timely and intensive quarantine measures. According to World Omometer, an international statistics website, New Zealand, which culminated in the spread of ‘146 new confirmed cases’ in May last year, recently recorded a single digit number of new confirmed cases, and in fact escaped from the Corona 19 pandemic (a global pandemic). Australia is also stably managing the spread, recording 10 new confirmed cases in the last week.
Travel Bubble is also a policy for the tourism industry ahead of the peak season. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson expressed his anticipation for Travel Bubble, saying that the arrival of Australian tourists during the vacation and ski season will be a great help to the struggled tourism industry. Australia’s state-run Qantas Airlines responded that once Travel Bubble begins, it will resume its 122 bilateral flights a week. As 40% of overseas visitors to New Zealand before the pandemic were Australians, the two countries were important partners that should not fall into each other’s tourism industry.
Singapore also announced that it will allow entry of travelers presenting a mobile travel pass issued by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) starting next month. The mobile travel pass contains the Corona 19 test results and vaccination certificate. In a statement, IATA Secretary-General Willie Walsh said, “The cooperation between IATA and the Singaporean government will be a good example for other countries.” Singapore Airlines has successfully completed the mobile travel pass test, and more than 20 airlines, including Malaysia Airlines and Emirates, are also undergoing tests, so IATA’s’vaccine passports’ may be introduced in more countries.
Related airline stocks also rose in anticipation of the resumption of travel between countries. Air New Zealand’s share price rose 5.80% from the previous day, while Australia’s Qantas Airways share price jumped 3.14% from the previous day.
/ Reporter Kwak Yoon-ah [email protected]
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