If you wanted to break winter with summer, you always had to have strong nerves. Sunbathe with autocrats, ride jet skis in developing countries, and then justify the tan at home – because of flight shame. It was easy to argue when you traveled to Southeast Asia: rich culture, less rich people – a transfer is almost imperative. But then came the pandemic.
Suddenly, those who still dared got to know the tough Asian bureaucracy, which is in no way inferior to the German one, especially when it comes to piling up mountains of paper. Like students on a school trip, long-distance travelers with transparent covers stood at the airline counters to have them check whether they had everything they needed for the entry procedure to Thailand, Bali or Singapore. Everywhere you had to take out additional health insurance, download apps, reveal personal data, scan QR codes. Sometimes in order to get an entry permit you even had to book hotels, which you were not reimbursed if you tested positive before departure. That was too much of a thrill for most people.
In Thailand alone, visitor numbers fell from around 40 million in the last pre-Covid season to a few hundred thousand last Christmas – normally high season. The Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia were no longer accessible. In some of these countries, soldiers patrolled the streets to protect the population from the virus.
All that seems to be forgotten now. Those who have been vaccinated twice can now travel to the Philippines. You can only go to Vietnam with a PCR test. Cambodia can reach vaccinates without testing, just like Thailand. There you have to be in quarantine for one night, just like in Bali. From April 17, holidays in Myanmar should even be possible again. But wasn’t there something, one or the other educated travel enthusiast will ask? The junta is still in power, bullying and killing its own people. But the generals need money to consolidate their power, and foreign exchange could help. Sightseeing and civil war – that would probably be too hard a combination, even for winter vacationers with strong nerves.
The easing of restrictions on the Europeans, who are rather carefree about the epidemic, is also due to the fact that the Chinese and Russians, who used to be the strongest visitor groups, will stay away for the time being. Some are not allowed to return to their homeland without going through a tough quarantine. The others hardly ever leave their country, and when they do, they cannot withdraw rubles abroad.
So now with the Southeast Asian openings, it’s all about sending signals as the season winds down to those who can travel and have the cash and nerve to book a break for next winter. That may seem strange in Germany, where everyone is looking forward to summer. But: In eight months it will be Christmas again.