Vietnam has pushed back a plan to re-open the resort island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists until November, after failing to meet targets for inoculating residents due to insufficient vaccine supplies, state media reported. The Southeast Asian nation, which is currently shut to all visitors apart from returning citizens and investors, has been struggling to speed up inoculations to help contain a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant in recent months. FILE PHOTO: Views from a beachside restaurant are seen at the Mango Bay resort in Phu Quoc island, Vietnam. REUTERS/James Pearson Authorities had initially planned to allow vaccinated foreign tourists to start returning to Phu Quoc in October to revive the tourism sector and prop up the economy. "We have to inoculat...
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Thailand has pushed back plans to re-open Bangkok and some other major cities to foreign arrivals until November, due to vaccination rates falling short of targets, a senior official said on Wednesday. Officials earlier this month said they planned here to welcome vaccinated tourists without quarantine to major cities like Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Mai in October to revive the country’s crucial tourism sector. FILE PHOTO: Boats that are used to transport tourists around the Chao Phraya river are seen idle due to travel bans and border closures from the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in downtown Bangkok, Thailand. REUTERS/Jorge Silva “Cities we’ve targeted have not reached 70% vaccination rates and so we have to push out the date to November,” Tourism Au...
Read MoreTravelers from India, China, Britain will be allowed as well The United States will re-open to air passengers from China, India, Britain and many other European countries who have received COVID-19 vaccines in early November, the White House said Monday, rolling back tough pandemic-related travel restrictions that started early last year. FILE PHOTO: Passengers walk past artwork between terminals at IAH George Bush Intercontinental Airport amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Houston, Texas, U.S. REUTERS/Adrees Latif The White House plans to allow non-U.S. citizen travelers from countries who have been barred from the United States since early 2020 as it moves to the new requirements, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said. The U.S. restri...
Read MoreVietnam plans to reopen the beach-fringed island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists from next month, authorities said, as the country looks at ways to revive an economy suffering from extended lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. The island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of Cambodia here, is expected to open for a trial period of six months, the government said in a statement issued late on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A sunset is seen in a resort after the Vietnamese government eased the lockdown following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Phu Quoc island, Vietnam May 8, 2020. REUTERS/James Pearson Vietnam, which is currently shut to all visitors apart from returning citizens and investors, had managed to contain the virus for much of the pandemic but in the past three...
Read MoreVaccine tourism, where tourist hotspots are now offering COVID-19 vaccinations on holiday to attract visitors, is a double-edged sword as, while it could assist travel’s restart, it also raises the question of vaccine equity as it will further increase the divide between the wealthy and less privileged, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. FILE PHOTO: A health worker prepares a syringe with the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination center in Le Cannet, France, January 19, 2021. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard GlobalData’s Q2 2021 consumer survey found that only 6% of global respondents were not concerned about the impact of COVID-19. The remaining 94% were ‘extremely’, ‘slightly’ or ‘quite’ concerned. With concerns high, the opportunity to get vacci...
Read MoreThe United Arab Emirates said it will resume issuing tourist visas to vaccinated travellers from Aug. 30, the state news agency (WAM) reported on Saturday. The decision also covered people coming in from countries from which the UAE had previously barred entry, WAM reported. In those cases, visitors would have to take a COVID-19 test on arrival, it added. FILE PHOTO: Passengers keep distance in a line at Dubai International Airport, as Emirates airline resumed limited outbound passenger flights amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dubai, UAE. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah The move comes amid a drop in coronavirus infections in the oil-rich Gulf country, after it reported less than 1,000 cases per day last week for the first time in months, and a month before Dubai ...
Read MoreFrance will reinforce restrictions on unvaccinated travellers from a series of countries to counter a rebound in COVID-19 infections, while opening its doors to those who have received all their shots, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday. The move comes as France faces a rapid surge in new coronavirus infections and President Emmanuel Macron tries to convince French citizens to accept vaccinations he says are the only way to stop the virus and put the country back on track. FILE PHOTO: A woman, wearing a protective face mask, walks past a closed restaurant in Paris amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Paris, France, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier From Sunday, July 18, non-vaccinated people coming from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, ...
Read MoreWarning comes as tourists are blocked at the borders in few countries The restart of international travel could be seriously delayed without worldwide reciprocal recognition of all approved COVID-19 vaccines, says the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The global tourism body, which represents the global private Travel & Tourism sector, has issued its warning following concerns tourists face being turned away at the borders because countries don’t have a common list internationally recognised and approved COVID-19 vaccines. FILE PHOTO: A sign for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic is seen as high-risk workers receive the first vaccines in the state of Victoria's rollout of the program, in Melbourne, Australia, February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders This comes just da...
Read MoreThe State of Qatar has re-opened its borders to international travellers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with vaccines that are approved for use by the Ministry of Public Health in Qatar. A new streamlined set of measures designed to make travelling to Qatar as easy as possible, while maintaining the necessary precautions to continue to protect against the spread of COVID-19, has been implemented and is effective immediately. The new measures will allow people who are fully vaccinated to visit Qatar without the need for quarantine. The new arrangements will also make it easier for citizens and residents of Qatar to travel in and out of the country, enabling fully vaccinated people to bypass the quarantine requirement when returning to Qatar. All visitors – vacci...
Read MoreThe popular Portuguese islands of Madeira will allow entry to visitors with any of the COVID-19 jabs being administered worldwide and not only with those approved by Europe's drug regulator, the regional government said on Sunday. The European Union, which launched its digital COVID certificate last week, has so far authorised only four vaccines - those of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. The certificate allows citizens to travel more freely across the bloc if they have been fully vaccinated with one of the four approved shots, received a recent negative test result or have immunity due to recent recovery. A general view shows the small village of Arco de Sao Jorge on Madeira's North coast, Portugal. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante Member s...
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