Bali began a tentative re-opening to foreign tourists on Wednesday with the first international passenger flight to the Indonesian holiday island in nearly two years.The resumption of flights comes as the Southeast Asian archipelago loosens quarantine rules even as it battles a surge in COVID cases fuelled by the Omicron variant.A Singapore Airlines plane carrying 109 international travellers and 47 Indonesians landed in Bali on Wednesday, the island's governor Wayan Koster told a press

Tour guide Lai Chi Phuc has been counting down the days until travellers return to the white-sand beaches and thick tropical jungle of Vietnam's Phu Quoc, a once-poor fishing island pushing to be Asia's next holiday hotspot as pandemic restrictions ease.On Saturday, around 200 South Koreans touched down on the island, which lies a few kilometres off Cambodia in the azure waters of the Gulf of Thailand, after a vaccine passport scheme kicked off this month in Vietnam.Among the arriva

The Philippines will soon welcome back foreign tourists, the government said Friday, as it prepares a partial re-opening to vaccinated travellers 20 months after closing its borders to contain the coronavirus.Tourism operators across the archipelago nation famed for its beaches and dive spots have been devastated by a plunge in international visitors and restrictions on domestic travel since the start of the pandemic.The government's COVID-19 taskforce has "approved in principle&quo

Thailand plans to reopen Bangkok to fully vaccinated visitors in October, officials said Friday, as the kingdom seeks to salvage a tourism industry hammered by the pandemic.Before COVID, tourism made up a fifth of Thailand's national income but severe travel curbs imposed to fight the virus saw the usual flood of foreign visitors dwindle to almost nothing, contributing to the economy's worst performance in over 20 years.The kingdom is pressing ahead with plans to reopen despite a de

Tuk-tuks and garishly coloured taxis that once weaved through chaotic Bangkok traffic are sitting idle in storage as a fresh coronavirus surge scuttles hopes of relief for Thailand's tourism-dependent economy.The kingdom is currently undergoing its worst-ever stretch of the pandemic after largely keeping COVID contained when the illness first emerged last year. Bangkok is subject to a night-time curfew and a ban on gatherings as authorities advise residents of the capital to sta

One of the first industries to feel the pinch from the coronavirus crisis has been the tourism sector.

Thailand's health minister lashed out at "Western" tourists on Friday for not wearing face masks and suggested they be expelled from the country for putting others at risk during the novel coronavirus outbreak.The outburst came as the kingdom faced steep losses over a drop in visitors from China, where the virus has killed more than 600 people and prompted sweeping travel restrictions.Tourism accounts for 18 percent of the country's gross domestic product and Chinese holid

In a previous article, The ASEAN Post highlighted the fact that today, in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Chinese mainlanders own more than 90 percent of all businesses. While this has increased land prices in the once sleepy-coastal town, the fact that the Chinese are willing to pay millions of dollars to buy land there only serves to heighten worries that Sihanoukville is becoming a small Chinese colony.