China and South Korea have instigated their own “corridor” to begin the recovery of the tattered tourism industry. This month, the two countries opened a tightly controlled corridor between selected cities including Seoul, South Korea to Shanghai, China. This was aimed at emboldening passenger movement between the cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Currently, conditions of entry include two weeks of screening and a virus test at home prior to flying, a two-day quarantine in China upon arrival, and then another blood test to confirm the visitor is virus free. Each country decided to allow the corridor between certain regions, given cases had started to slow.
To date, the number of cases in China has passed 84,000 cases, with a total of 4638 deaths. On the other hand, South Korea to date, has 11,122 cases of the virus and recorded 264 deaths.
According to Bloomberg, the Korea International Trade Association said it’s taking about 300 calls a day from local companies interested in the fast-track program to get people flying again.
On the other hand, according to the publication, Korean Airlines sold out its weekly flight from Seoul to the northeast Chinese city of Shenyang – a Boeing 777 with more than 330 seats – and plans to resume flights next month to more destinations in China, including Beijing and Qingdao.
Last week, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania opened their borders to each other to create a Baltic bubble providing businesses with an opportunity to reopen and travel without having to endure a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.
The term “travel bubble” has been bandied about in the past month as governments here and abroad consider ways to gently resume travel and restart tourism industries.
But these “corridors” come with a number of hoops passengers need to jump through in order to travel, which industry leaders fear could deter people from wanting to travel if the bubble movement moves around the world.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents almost 300 carriers, found in an April survey that 69 per cent of recent travelers wouldn’t fly if it involved a 14-day quarantine – making this a key feature for bubbles or corridors – to be successful.
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