Hongkongers love to travel. In 2019, our 7.5 million residents took nearly 13 million outbound trips from Hong Kong International Airport. So it’s been tough dealing with the fact that we can no longer buy a last-minute ticket and jet off somewhere the way we could before the coronavirus became a fact of life. As we enter our eighth month of Covid-19 restrictions, one of the questions I’m hearing is: “When will we be able to travel again?” Everybody – businesses, governments, regular people – is eager to restart international tourism and commerce. Lately, a lot of excitement has been building around the idea of “travel bubbles” and whether Hong Kong could become part of one – or several – of them. A travel bubble, or an air bridge, is an agreement between governments to ease (or even drop) Covid-19-related entry and quarantine restrictions. The idea is similar to that of a social or quarantine pod but on a larger scale, with countries, regions or cities, instead of family and friends. On May 15, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania established a Baltic bridge, opening their borders to each other. In June, the European Union created a travel bubble among its member states. Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific islands have been talking about creating a trans-Tasman bubble . What about Asia? Certainly, there’s a lot of interest in creating our own travel bubbles here. And you might imagine this would be a relatively easy process, since we are in a region that has been notably successful in managing the virus. But I’m afraid that’s not the case. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been having discussions about possible travel bubbles with consuls general from the region. It’s been a well-intentioned but often frustrating process. Prolonged travel, tourism slump poses challenge like no other for Hong Kong Ironically, the very thing that has made Asia successful in the coronavirus battle may be what keeps us from easily forming a regional travel bubble. Unlike the US and Europe, we’ve had a “zero tolerance” policy for infection control, with tight border restrictions, 14-day quarantines and scrupulous contact tracing and testing . These procedures have worked so well that individual countries are reluctant to relax them at this stage of the game, even the places that depend heavily on tourism dollars and business travel. Another problem is that we still have no standard, across-the-board criteria of health safety measures. Around Asia (and, indeed the world), each country, region or city has developed its own system for testing, measuring, tracing and quarantine. Before we can start to form a bubble with another Asian destination, we have to agree on how and when to test travellers, whether quarantine should be required and, if so, for how long. Trust also is crucial: how do we ensure compliance on both sides of a border? (This is especially problematic when dealing with neighbouring countries with tight rules and bureaucratic red tape.) Finally, there is the issue of scale and timing. Most countries will want passengers tested, either before or after arrival, and within a reasonably short time frame. But, right now, no one has the capacity to process tens of thousands of tests per day, with rapid turnaround. Until this gets resolved, there will need to be limits on the number of cross-border travellers in any travel bubble. Despite all these difficulties, we were actually moving forward with some potential travel bubble arrangements. And then the third wave of Covid-19 hit. Arrangements with Australia and New Zealand were off the table – understandably, they have to first sort out their own trans-Tasman bubble before reaching out to Asia. Japan and Thailand have both shelved their travel bubble plans until further notice. Even the nearest travel bubble for Hongkongers may be weeks, even months, away. We had been looking forward to opening a safe travel zone between Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province. But when Hong Kong’s cases began spiking last month, that agreement had to be delayed. (Guangdong province, meanwhile, is going ahead with a separate Individual Visit Scheme agreement with Macau starting on August 26.) Though I can only report disappointing news at this point, I believe there is something encouraging to be learned from all this. Establishing travel bubbles requires countries and regions to balance health and safety against economic concerns. It’s clear that in Hong Kong, and across Asia, our top priority is to keep people safe and healthy. And that’s a good thing, even if it means we have to wait a few more months to head back to the airport. Bernard Chan is convenor of Hong Kong's Executive Council