Hong Kong and Singapore Are Opening an Air Travel Bubble
On May 26, Hong Kong and Singapore's quarantine-free air travel bubble is set to begin. The move, considered to be the future of travel, permits trips between neighboring countries as long as COVID-19 remains under control in both places.
As long as travelers-no matter what nationality-have remained in either city for 14 consecutive days, they'll be eligible to go from Hong Kong to Singapore and vice versa. The catch? Hong Kong residents are required to be fully vaccinated before departing for Singapore.
There's still plenty of details to iron out as visitors coming in from Singapore aren't required to be vaccinated. Whether or not non-residents need to comply with the vaccine requirement remains unclear.
If you're looking to take advantage of the air travel bubble, you'll have to wait. As of this writing, seats for the inaugural flights have already sold out-even with prices going as high as SGD1,000 (approximately P36,500).
What is a travel bubble?
Travel bubbles let countries open their borders to other participating countries. The arrangement eliminates the need for quarantine periods, while allowing for safer travel across different areas. A travel bubble will effectively restart tourism and, by extension, the economy.
Experts recommend the setup for countries that have governments that trust each other, as well as those with little to no active COVID-19 cases. Australia and New Zealand, both countries that have contained the coronavirus pandemic, opened a travel bubble at the start of April. It was momentarily paused following lockdowns in Australia, but the bubble resumed early this week.
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