Reviving Asia-Pacific Tourism is Touch and Go amid Coronavirus Pandemic

CANBERRA, KOMPAS.com — Asia-Pacific tourism is making both advances and missteps after global travel came to an abrupt halt following the coronavirus pandemic.

As the worldwide virus transmission continues to surge and linger, Asia-Pacific tourism operators are doing their best to navigate the situation.

On Friday, Indonesia’s popular resort island of Bali tentatively opened to domestic travelers.

Down south in Australia’s Queensland, famously known as Australia’s Sunshine State, local tourism businesses are struggling to stay afloat.

Read also: Mitigating Coronavirus Pandemic Will Cost Australia $131 Billion in 2020

Queensland is expected to lose visitors from Australia’s biggest city, Sydney.

With international travel heavily restricted, progress in reviving tourism has been at best anemic and usually perilous.

The perils became evident in Vietnam's popular beach destination of Da Nang, where an outbreak that began with one person last week has swelled to nearly 100 cases.

Read also: Vietnam’s Da Nang Under Lockdown Following Fresh Covid-19 Cases

Da Nang’s beaches, which host some 50,000 tourists daily during the high season, were emptied when the city was locked down Tuesday.

Queensland state, which is believed to be free of community transmission of the virus, has been allowing in all interstate travelers except those from coronavirus hot spot Victoria state.

While businesses lost visitors from Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, at least they could look forward to Sydney residents escaping the Southern Hemisphere's winter for a tropical Great Barrier Reef vacation.

But a growing Sydney outbreak led the Queensland government to reconsider and Sydney visitors will now be banned from Saturday.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council deputy chief executive Brett Kapernick said the loss of Sydney visitors would cost some tourism operators 40 percent of their revenue.

“With this pandemic, the situation becomes fluid and therefore evolves weekly,” Kapernick said. “A week ago, we didn’t think we’d be facing a border closed to Sydney."