John Saboe's Far East Travels

Announcements mostly by tourism associations eager to help their members and clients reopen their tourism driven businesses have been making announcements in the last few weeks that tourism could possibly open up in certain countries in Southeast Asia in particular by July 1st. I certainly hope that tourism has a chance to start recovering soon but I'm a little skeptical that most countries will reopen to tourists that have been inocculated with a COVID-19 vaccine. The Thai government recently announced they will start allowing tourists that have been vaccinated to quarantine for only 7 days from 14-15 days previously. It's quite possible you may see other countries follow suit. Realistically if international tourism opens up this year in SEA, East Asia, or South Asia I think it would be more towards the 4th quarter or October. This will give countries a chance, in some cases, to bring their populations up to herd immunity, as well as have systems in place to accept digital vaccine certificates or vaccine pas