Vaccination leader board and COVID news that matter.

Cambodia 

Moving upward fast on the vaccination leader board, Cambodia now has second highest vaccination rate in Asia-Pacific. The fully vaccinated population ratio reached83% in October, and some regions started to provide optional third dose booster shots to their citizens. Cambodia acquired more than 37.72 million doses of vaccination from China.

Daily cases continued to decrease over past months. Planning to get the younger population vaccinated, the government is confident to reopen its borders like other SEA countries as scheduled.

The Ministry of Tourism released a three-stage reopening plan for vaccinated travelers starting in late November. Stage 1, “restart,” would start with cities along Gulf of Thailand, including Sihanoukville, Koh Rong Island, and the Dara Sakor project. The country’s main attraction, Angkor Wat and city of Siem Reap will not open until 2022.

Japan

Japan lifted its state of emergency for the first time in six months in October, and various restrictions were eased accordingly. Although daily new cases decreased as vaccination rates increased after the Olympic Games, there is no sign of reopening to international tourists at this moment.

Besides, the government announced they would welcome business travelers to Japan by reducing the current 10-day quarantine to just 3 days. The government, on the other hand, is eager to restart domestic travel to compensate the loss of profits from international travelers. Tetsuo Saito, Japan's new Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced the intention to resume “Go to Travel” which provides subsidies up to50% on domestic travel expenses.

Japan would stick to 2030 its tourism target of 60 million annual visitors amid COVID-19’s impact. Development of Integrated Resorts (“IRs”) is part of the strategy to attract more inbound tourists in the long run. The planned IR is scheduled for 2022, and the central government plans to approve up to three locations for IR development.

Interested local governments all appointed operators to prepare the proposal, including partnership in Osaka City with MGM and Orix Corp, Wakayama City with Caesars Entertainment and Clairvest Neem Ventures, and Nagasaki with Casinos Austria.‍

Thailand

Thailand kickstarted the largest quarantine-free program for visitors from more than 60countries, after its initial success of the “Phuket Sandbox” experiment, which welcomed almost 60,000 visitors to the island since July. Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport and the international airport in Phuket are the first two airports to receive international travelers under the new policy.

Nevertheless, some local business owners still have doubts towards the relaxation as the country recorded more than 8,000 cases a day, though vaccination rates are gradually increasing. The reopening is expected to attract travelers from western countries during the winter holidays and critical peak season in January.

An advisory firm founded by Dan Voellm, MRICS in 2011 in Hong Kong has seen the opening of additional offices in Bangkok and Shenzhen. AP Hospitality Advisors serves owners, investors, developers, operators and lenders of hospitality assets across Asia-Pacific. The team blends expertise in operations, real estate and finance to support any critical step in the asset life-cycle.

www.ap-ha.com