After 18 months of restrictions, the establishment of vaccinated travel lanes with 11 countries offers the first real chance in about 20 months for Singapore residents to go on holiday. But are the risks of travelling during a pandemic worth it?
QUARANTINE EFFECTIVELY A “TRAVEL BAN” The initiative represents the most significant easing of Singapore’s travel restrictions since the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year. Over the past 20 months, as part of efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, most visitors arriving in Singapore have had to serve stay-home notices - a type of quarantine - for durations of up to three weeks, with few exceptions.
Such isolation periods have effectively served as a travel ban, said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor for industry publication FlightGlobal. Last year saw visitor arrivals to Singapore plummet 85.7 per cent to 2.7 million, down from 19.1 million in 2019. Vaccinated travel lanes provide “a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel”, said Mr Waldron, adding there is still a long way before commercial aviation returns to what it was before the pandemic. He questioned whether it made sense to continue imposing travel restrictions and requiring quarantine periods, noting both how widespread COVID-19 cases are and how vaccination against the disease is becoming increasingly common. During a press conference last weekend, Mr Iswaran said the introduction of the vaccinated travel lanes was a significant step in the reopening of Singapore's borders,"crucial to reclaiming and rebuilding our status as an international aviation hub with global connectivity". Reconnecting with the 11 vaccinated travel lane countries is important, he said, noting they accounted for about 10 per cent of pre-pandemic annual passenger arrivals at Changi Airport and also ranked among Singapore's top 20 trading partners. "We aim to restore safe two-way quarantine-free travel with more countries and regions from around the world, and are engaged in several discussions to that end," Mr Iswaran said then.Related:Following the long period of restrictive travel requirements, vaccinated travel lanes look to have sparked a lot of interest. There were reports of long queues at the Singapore Airlines service centre on Orchard Road, with the national carrier’s websiteAnd on Tuesday - the first day that applications for vaccinated travel passes to the new European and North American countries were opened -Mr Tan said his trip to Germany in September was “definitely a good break away from Singapore”, noting one of the highlights was a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle.“I understand from the guide that it would have extremely packed ordinarily but now the tours into the castle were capped at twenty pax each session allowing more attention to questions and sharing by the guides,” he said. For Mr Tan, travelling to Germany provided a glimpse at what living with COVID-19 might look like in Singapore’s future. With measures similar to Singapore’s in terms of mask wearing and contact tracing, life has largely returned to normal in the Western European nation, he said. “I think Germany’s COVID protocols showed us how endemic living is and how it is seen as a very normalised thing should one contract COVID, versus the stigma it now has in Singapore or in Asia broadly.” He noted though that travelling during the pandemic required more research and planning to meet requirements such as making time to take a PCR test before flying off from Munich, as well as finding a conveniently located lab to do so.The trip was “definitely worth the hassle”, he said, noting the only point where he was worried about infection was when he met friends for dinner at an indoor eatery in Berlin. “As there was no capacity cap, as far as I understand, as long as you’re vaccinated, the outlets are free to sit the usual full house number of patrons,” he said. As an added precaution, he used alcohol wipes to wipe down furniture in his hotel room as well as when dining in at restaurants.However, while VTLs offer the opportunity for comparatively straightforward travel, things can go wrong. Freelance writer He Ruiming, who was planning to travel to Germany earlier this month, had to postpone his trip when he received the results of a PCR test, revealing he was COVID-19 positive. Though Mr He was unable to recover some of his expenses on Airbnb accommodation that he had booked, he was able to reschedule his flight on SIA at no additional cost. “So I just told SQ that I have COVID so I would like to change my flight and they were very nice about the whole thing,” said the 32-year-old, who hopes to be able to travel later this month. "It's just been lots of cancellations, but I guess the good thing is that I bought insurance early on so I'm not too worried about it," he added. One prospective traveller, who wanted to be known only as DS, is planning to fly to Barcelona via the new arrangement, from there travelling to places in Northern Spain and Southern France. The 29-year-old civil servant said he had already been planning the trip with a friend in the days leading up to the announcement of the travel lanes. This was when both countries were placed in Category II of the Health Ministry’s risk assessment framework, allowing travellers entering Singapore to serve a shortened seven-day stay-home notice at their own accommodations, rather than in a dedicated facility. DS said he plans to travel around in a campervan during his vacation, exploring the mountains and the coast. “I think part of travel has always just been that kind of freedom to explore and wander around that you can't really get, I think, in Singapore,” he said. Being confined by travel restrictions may have left people in Singapore climbing the walls, said sociologist Tan Ern Ser. “Like it or not, we are an island nation, all of 720 sq km,” said Dr Tan, an associate professor with the National University of Singapore’s Department of Sociology. “We can put up with doing some local tourism for a while, but the thought of not being able to even go across to our neighbour Malaysia may have caused us to feel claustrophobic.” People “longed to travel for leisure after staying home for over 20 months and are eager to spread their wings and fly when they are able to do so with minimal inconvenience”, said Ngee Ann Polytechnic senior tourism lecturer Michael Chiam. Lifting travel restrictions is a sign that the situation is beginning to look up, said Dr Tan, though he suggested that relieving pandemic fatigue will depend on whether Singapore can sustain the momentum of moving towards an endemic situation. Dr Chiam noted that other groups driving the demand for the vaccinated travel lanes are those seeking to reconnect with relatives and close friends in other countries, as well as business people who need to visit overseas operations and meet with clients, he said.
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