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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/japan-test-tourism-package-tours-reopening-may-2689346 https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-to-allow-small-groups-of-tourists-to-visit-this-month Japan Kakis fall in! But alamak need to travel by travel agency/tour group, pre-determined itineraries approved by their government, travel guide at all times and need to have 3 COVID-19 shots and COVID insurance. I'm surprised USA is on the same shortlist as Singapore. The Tourism Agency said on Tuesday that it would start allowing small group tours to enter from later this month as "test cases" to gain information for a broader resumption of tourism at an unspecified future date. Tourists who have been triple-vaccinated and come from the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore will be allowed to take part in the tours, which will be strictly planned in conjunction with travel agencies and accompanied at all times by tour conductors, it added in a statement. "This venture will allow us to verify compliance and emergency responses for infection prevention and formulate guidelines for travel agencies and accommodation operators to keep in mind," it said. The four countries are recognised as having lower Covid-19 risk of mutant strains, and are key priority markets for Japan.

Disney, ocean park and timsum is possible this year!!😂 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/hong-kong-air-travel-bubble-covid-19-flights-singapore-13513966?cid=FBcna&fbclid=IwAR3wBSd7rjUjLLp_u-BbpkD782Pn8z4Wt4X30TijBjJbEV8EV78SKs5ZsRs

Singapore restarting cruises: Boost for economy, but not plain sailing source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/restarting-cruises-boost-for-economy-but-not-plain-sailing It may sound like a good way to help the economy, but it could easily be a disaster waiting to happen. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has announced that it will allow pilot "cruises to nowhere" from next month, with safety measures in place. This sounds fine, in theory. It's true that Singapore risks harming its economy if it does not return to some form of normalcy. But when it comes to cruises, the risks may outweigh potential rewards. Consider what cruises entail in the first place. Passengers eat, they take part in activities, and they generally relax outside of their cabins. Even accepting that each cruise ship carries only half the number of passengers it can normally accommodate, it would still host more than 1,000 people over a period of days. One of the participating ships in the pilot project has a normal capacity of more than 3,300 and the other has a maximum capacity of 4,900. And that is without counting the crew. Those on board are supposed to wear masks. But we know that while masks do reduce the transmission rate, they do not completely stop the coronavirus from spreading. And passengers will not be masked during meals. There is also the risk of transmitting the virus through common surfaces passengers touch while they help themselves to the food. And even if the food is served at the counter by crew, there are still many possible contact points. Do you stop passengers from touching walls and handrails when they go for a stroll on deck? Or from talking to one another when taking part in activities? There are just so many possibilities for Covid-19 transmission. One might argue that the same may be said of people in shopping malls or supermarkets. But they do not mingle for several days. Nor are they stuck together in an enclosed space, interacting through on-board activities. People excited or having a good time tend to talk louder, increasing the transmission risk. Expert opinion on the risks posed by such cruises is divided. Professor Dale Fisher, a senior infectious diseases consultant at National University Hospital, and Professor Ooi Eng Eong of Duke-NUS Medical School's emerging infectious diseases programme see the move as another step towards normalising life here. "It's not only about prioritising the safest activities; there is a balance with social and economic factors," said Prof Fisher. Prof Ooi agreed that it is important to balance the risks against the livelihoods of many, adding: "It would be the same as any staycation." Dr Asok Kurup, who chairs the Academy of Medicine's Chapter of Infectious Disease Physicians, is more concerned that cruises usually attract older people - who are more vulnerable to Covid-19. He said: "Socialising is another reason older folks go for cruises, (play) mahjong, et cetera. The skew towards more elderly passengers in such settings, in possibly confined environments, means the need to be super vigilant and have very thorough policing of measures." How is that going to happen? The STB said the ships must have "measures to discourage close contact and inter-mingling between groups". Discourage, not prohibit. People may intermingle, gather and chat. Even if rules are laid out, they may be breached. Even if the crew take action against paying passengers, the damage may have been done. The website of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States - the worst-hit country in the world - says: "Cruise ships pose a greater risk of Covid-19 transmission than other settings" as they "are typically more densely populated than cities or most other living situations". It advises Americans to defer cruise travel. Professor Alex Cook, vice-dean of research at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, is also dead set against such cruises. He asked: "Are cruise ships the hill we want to die on?" He pointed out that there is no guarantee that all passengers are free from Covid-19. A passenger who gets infected the day before boarding "is almost certainly going to test negative on embarking", said Prof Cook. During incubation, the person would test negative - but could turn positive in a day or two, in other words, during the cruise. Should an outbreak result, he warned, "we'll need to be ready to handle the contact tracing and quarantining that would be necessary". The CDC said there is also risk in "crew living and working in close quarters in a partially enclosed environment where social distancing may prove challenging, even with a limited number of people on board". Should a crew member be infected but be asymptomatic, it could "keep the virus circulating from one voyage to the next". The STB says it is allowing such cruises "in line with the calibrated resumption of economic activities in Singapore". Yes, it is important to keep the economy going. And yes, many people here want to go on holiday again. But the risk appears too high. The outcome is uncertain - it could be beneficial or highly damaging. In the best-case scenario, no transmission occurs on board and everyone has a good time. But the worst that could happen - and there is no guarantee that it won't - is a major outbreak that, if spread to the community by asymptomatic carriers, could bring more economic activities to a halt. Surely there are better ways to kick-start the economy?

So will they start to u turn again when fewer hotels want to collect this money for them? So all I have to do is get my Malaysia counterparts or someone local to book and check in for me, and there i dont have to pay what tax liao. And then suddenly, more locals are staying in their own hotels, and visitors start to stay on the street. Silly. http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/5000-malaysian-hotels-start-imposing-tourism-tax KUALA LUMPUR • •Some 5,000 hotels around Malaysia have started implementing a new tourism tax for foreign visitors. Foreign tourists are charged a flat rate of RM10 (S$3.20) per night per room, while Malaysians and permanent residents are exempted. "We will impose a RM10 flat rate from five-star to zero-star hotels for foreign tourists, and Malaysians will be exempted from the tax across all classifications of hotels," Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz told Parliament last week, as quoted by The Star newspaper.He said his ministry had estimated that the government would be able to collect RM210 million a year, based on an average occupancy rate of 60 per cent of the 237,391 rooms currently registered with the government. Get The Straits Times newsletters in your inboxSIGN UP The plan to introduce the tourism tax had been controversial, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, which were worried fewer tourists would visit the two East Malaysian states. The government had initially planned to charge between RM2 and RM20 per night, depending on the type of accommodation. Malaysian Association of Hotels president Sam Cheah Swee Hee said hotel operators started charging the tourism tax on Friday. "Not all hotel operators are ready. We will do it manually until the system is ready," he said. He added that hoteliers would submit their tax collection to the Customs and Excise Department by next month. The department is taking a "friendly approach" to encourage hotels and lodging operators to register for the tourism tax, said its director-general, Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy. "We will not be harsh as the announcement of the tax came a little late," he added. The government announced early last month that the tourism tax was to be enforced from Friday. Mr Subromaniam said the department would try to contact hotel operators that have not registered, rather than chase them to quickly do so. The number of registered accommodation providers so far is 5,000, out of the estimated 10,000 establishments nationwide. "We are giving hotel operators another month. We expect all to register with us by the end of September," he added. Bernama news agency reported that hoteliers must display the newly introduced tax rate separately from the room rates. Malaysian Association of Hotels (Sarawak Chapter) honorary secretary-general John Teo Peng Yew said hotel and resort operators need to adhere to the new ruling, following a recent meeting with the Finance Ministry and the Customs and Excise Department.

It cuts both ways........ one side, retailers are suffering, another way, SG ppl are damm happy https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/glitzy-street-no-more-vanishing-024300021.html Desperate owners are starting to get panicky. The country’s posh shopping center is bearing the brunt of the sharp decline in Chinese tourist arrivals. According to Maybank Kim Eng, short-term headwinds are in the forecast for Orchard Road’s landlords. The report stated that Orchard Road shops are dealing with a new Chinese law that bans “forced shopping” for tourists. Hoteliers are also now focusing on corporate and transient segments as tour groups become more scarce. “Our conversations with Orchard Road landlords suggest that the current headwinds may be short term in nature. Chinese visitors have been declining since last October, partly because of a new mainland law that bans “forced shopping”, which prompted sharp rises in prices for outbound tours in China. In addition, many hotels along Orchard Road have progressively moved away from the wholesale customer segment (tour groups) to focus on the higher-yielding corporate and transient segments,” the report stated. Here’s more from Maybank Kim Eng: The Chinese are no longer coming in droves. Following the political upheaval in Thailand and the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, there have been concerns that this may have a negative impact on Chinese visitor arrivals. Mainland Chinese typically holiday in Singapore, as part of their tours to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Based on 2013 data, mainland Chinese were the second-largest international visitor group to Singapore (2.3m) after the Indonesians (3.1m). Anecdotal evidence points to Chinese tourists cancelling their travel plans to Southeast Asia in recent months. The initial signs of a slowdown are already evident with Chinese visitor arrivals down 31% and 14% YoY in 4Q13 and 1Q14, respectively. More recently, the April retail sales of watches and jewellery, which are highly dependent on tourist purchases, registered a sharp YoY decline of 16.3%. The law was in response to recent years of public outcry in China over extremely cheap tours tied to “forced shopping”. The law, which took effect at the start of the seven-day National Day “Golden Week” holiday on 1 Oct 2013. The upshot was substantial increases in tourist agency costs, especially salaries for tour guides, who previously received commissions from designated shops. As a result, sales of such tours have fallen, even at what is a peak period for holidays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDOqIYqrldg A video uploaded by the Singapore Tourism Board to its YouTube channel last month was taken down on Monday, hours after it received flak online. The three-minute clip appears to be an advertisement to encourage people from the Philippines to visit the city-state. Titled "See where the world is heading", it features a romantic couple travelling to Singapore to celebrate their anniversary. They walk around Marina Bay Sands and Gardens By The Bay, and at the luxury hotel's rooftop skypark, the woman gives her man a very surprising present. The video, which was uploaded on 26 March, was taken down hours after news and lifestyle website Mothership.sg came out with a post Monday titled "This STB video is so bad it will go viral". The reactions on social media proved the site right. ---------- It is so cheesy, almost like opening shots to some cheapskate porn movie....

8t1_L7D7ZRg http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2012/03/singap...o-get-lost.html

Has anyone travel on the Malaysian rail tourism packages as advertised on TV? Looks interesting so planning to take one of the packages end of yr. Want to have a taste of how rural life living is like & the package is not too expensive.

Read about it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/d...d_n_287352.html Imagine if STPB had videos tell people to come here to sire children from our wanton women who do not like whimpy SG guys. I think it should work for Thailand as well.

White elephant....begin to dance....that what the pit stop building going to be SINGAPORE: Even with the Formula One race, tourist arrivals to Singapore in September declined year

Hi guys, 12th Discover Malaysia Tourism Fair 2007 at Singapore EXPO Trade & Public - Free Admission Hall 6B 16-Nov-07 to 18-Nov-07 Start Time: 10:00; End Time : 22:00 Should be able to get some great deals for hotel stay in MY. Regards,

M'sia Boleh... For more Picture: http://www.zerotohundred.com/forums/index....showtopic=31593