WANT to travel without getting a vaccine shot, RT-PCR test, or quarantining on arrival?
These are the countries you can go to: Albania, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, North Macedonia and Tanzania. According to the latest report from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), these destinations have lifted all Covid-19 restrictions on international travel.
In general, however, “One in three destinations worldwide are now completely closed to international tourism,” said the UNWTO.
“The emergence of new variants of the Covid-19 virus has prompted many governments to reverse efforts to ease restrictions on travel, with total closures to tourists most prevalent in Asia and the Pacific, and Europe.”
The UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report provides a comprehensive overview of the regulations in place in 217 destinations worldwide. While previous editions had shown a movement towards easing or lifting restrictions on travel, the latest report shows that the persistent seriousness of the epidemiological situation has caused governments to adopt a more cautious approach.
At the beginning of February 2021, for instance, 69 countries which represent 32 percent of all destinations worldwide, were completely closed for international tourism. Of these, 38 countries, or just about half of the total, were closed for at least 40 weeks. At the same time, 34 percent of destinations worldwide have been partially closed to international tourists.
In a news statement, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Polilikashvili said, “Travel restrictions have been widely used to restrict the spread of the virus. Now, as we work to restart tourism, we must recognize that restrictions are just one part of the solution. Their use must be based on the latest data and analysis and consistently reviewed so as to allow for the safe and responsible restart of a sector upon which many millions of businesses and jobs depend.”
PHL among 69 ‘closed’ destinations
The Philippines has partial travel restrictions, as it allows the entry of returning overseas Filipinos, contract workers, and expatriates. However, it still prohibits the entry of foreign tourists and is thus, counted by UNWTO among the 69 destinations that have completely closed its borders to tourism. In Asia, it ranks with Brunei, Cambodia, China, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Taiwan, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
Its tourism gross domestic product is over 20 percent and is clustered with 28 other high tourism-GDP countries such as Macau, Maldives, Cambodia, Iceland, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean nations.
According to the UNWTO report, of the 69 countries which don’t allow tourists, 30 are in Asia and the Pacific, 15 are in Europe, 11 are in Africa, 10 are in the Americas and three are in the Middle East. But a growing number of destinations, 70 at the last count, now require tourists to resent negative RT-PCR or antigen test results upon arrival. However, they also require tourists to quarantine.
Even as the UNWTO leads the restart of international tourism, its report also noted the top 10 tourism source markets have been advising their citizens to refrain from non-essential travels abroad. These markets—Germany, China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, South Korea and Japan—accounted for 44 percent of international arrivals in 2018.
“That advice issued by governments will play a crucial role in the restart and recovery of tourism in the weeks and months ahead,” said the UNWTO.