Southeast Asia eyes vaccine passports for tourists

As vaccinations are rolled out across the region, countries in Southeast Asia are eyeing vaccine passports as a way to bring back international travelers, using cautious steps toward reopening borders in line with expert advice.

Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports announced that it will shorten the quarantine period from 14 to seven days for vaccinated tourists, under a plan that is to be ready on April 1. Local media said the country also aims to open its borders to the world with quarantine-free entry this year.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked ministries on Wednesday to map out plans for a "COVID-19 vaccine passport", according to local online site VnExpress. Singapore and Australia are expected to discuss the possibility of establishing a travel bubble between them for vaccinated travelers by mid-2021.

Vaccine passports may be a step forward to reboot Southeast Asia's hard-hit tourism sector, but regional governments need to proceed with caution, experts say.

"The adoption of health certificates or vaccine passports will be very important for the recovery of tourism in the region and beyond," said Alexander Trupp, associate professor at the School of Hospitality at Sunway University in Malaysia.

However, he said such a program must be accompanied by other health and safety measures and conform with strong regulation.

Australia-based travel industry expert Carolyn Childs said she would suggest that governments test whether a vaccine passport program works through a pilot program prior to large-scale implementation. But the real situation is many countries cannot wait for that, according to Childs, co-founder and CEO of MyTravel-Research.com, a market research and marketing firm.

Childs said even though surveys have shown that about 30 percent of people in Australia would still like to visit Southeast Asia once borders are open, that might also increase the risk of virus transmission and raises the question of who gets to travel since the proportion of vaccinated people is pretty small.

The World Health Organization has said that health passes tied to vaccinations may increase inequality until everyone has an opportunity to get vaccinated. But the European Union is considering its own vaccine certificate for trips within the bloc.

Noting the pandemic's devastating impact on tourism-dependent economies in Southeast Asia, Childs said it is inevitable that regional countries will introduce vaccine passports, whether or not the conditions are ideal.

"Tourism is so critical to many of the economies in Southeast Asia," said Childs.

Tourism accounts for more than 15 percent of Thailand's economy. As the number of its foreign visitors fell over 80 percent to 6.7 million last year, Southeast Asia's second-largest economy contracted 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2020, its sharpest decline since 1998.

"We know that the vaccines are very good at preventing the disease, but whether or not the vaccine will prevent the spread (of COVID-19) is still a question," said Maurizio Trevisan, dean of the College of Health Sciences at VinUniversity in Hanoi. This is because even a 95 percent efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine may still mean 5 percent of those vaccinated will get the disease in a milder form.

The good news is that studies have shown that when infected, vaccinated individuals carry a very small amount of the virus, which means the likelihood of them spreading it is low, said Trevisan.

With many studies taking place, Trevisan said, people will soon have a better sense of the probabilities of a vaccinated person spreading the virus.

In early March, China launched an app-based program that enables users to obtain a Chinese version of an international travel health certificate. Trevisan said different countries, including China and Southeast Asian countries, can work together to promote mutual recognition of vaccine passports.

Trevisan said earlier examples show this is possible, citing the proof of yellow fever vaccination requested by many countries for inbound visitors.

Childs, the travel industry expert, said the vaccine passport concept is expected to gain public acceptance in places that have low transmission rates, such as Singapore and Vietnam.

To restart international travel, Childs said a better approach may be to develop a low-risk profile, of which the vaccine passport would make up just one part.

Childs said there will be much to learn from China. Also, on vaccine passports, Southeast Asian countries will have to negotiate with China－the world's biggest market in outbound tourism.

Trupp from Sunway University said a vaccine passport or digital health certificate should "serve as an assurance that a person has recovered from COVID-19 or has been vaccinated against it".

"Importantly, for vaccine passports to work across international borders, there needs to be strong regulation and standardization," said Trupp. And health and safety procedures should be maintained, including testing prior to departure and upon arrival, wearing of masks, temperature screening and social distancing.

kelly@chinadailyapac.com