The pandemic continues to spring surprises (and havoc) more than a year and a half since it started, and that includes disrupting travel plans.

We are not going back to pre-pandemic travel any time soon, but it’s clear that the situation has improved immensely in recent months (if you live near an airport you will know what I mean), thanks to aggressive vaccination programmes worldwide.

The IATA Travel Pass, a mobile app helping travellers to store and manage verified certifications for COVID-19 tests or vaccines, is also beginning to take off, if you excuse the pun.

Asia is key to British business interests, and unfortunately facing the brunt of the pandemic at the moment, with some countries under, or about to go under, lockdown.

Indonesia and Philippines are both on the UK’s red list and seeing their highest COVID-19
daily cases to date. Amber list countries include China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, also seeing a single day record lately.

Hong Kong and Singapore are meanwhile on the ‘green list’. They also allow vaccinated travellers entry from the UK, who will nonetheless face quarantine.

For all countries we encourage you to follow the official foreign travel advice on the UK government website. For Hong Kong and Singapore there are additional official government websites with in-depth requirements - bookmark these pages, as the pandemic is continually evolving:

Green list destinations (22 August)

Hong Kong
● Coronavirus - Hong Kong (SAR of China) travel advice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
● https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/inbound-travel.html

Singapore
● https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/singapore/entry-requirements
● https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/vtl/requirements-and-process
● Travel advisories (singaporeair.com)

Amber list destinations

China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam

Red list destinations

Indonesia, Philippines

Go virtual

Of course, with Teams and Zoom you can still connect with relevant people in Asia through video calls (though they are no substitute in Asia for face to face), and live meetings have also gone virtual through webinars and live events.

You can also connect with consumers and stakeholders all year round through social media (note that platforms and channels will be different in China), by engaging audiences around your story.

At Join in China we will continue to make the right virtual connections for your business, whether through setting up a social media account, launching a webinar, writing online articles or ensuring your presence at a virtual event.