My Take | Even with the travel bubble, it may be best to stay home
- Quarantine-free travel to Singapore will appeal to many Hongkongers desperate for a break. But is it responsible to holiday during a pandemic, no matter what measures are in place?
There is an old song that defines entertainment as “watching telly and thinking ’bout your holidays”. Today, we are more likely to binge on Netflix and long for the day when a trip abroad is possible. Covid-19 travel restrictions have forced us to stay at home.
A glimmer of hope emerged last week when Hong Kong and Singapore announced “the world’s first leisure travel bubble”. Quarantine-free trips between the two cities will, all being well, start on November 22.
The deal was only possible because cases in both destinations have been reduced to what is considered a safe level. But we know, after almost a year of living with the virus, that a pattern tends to repeat itself. When the number of cases comes down, restrictions are relaxed, people become more complacent and the virus spreads again.
It is, therefore, no surprise that in the same week the travel bubble was announced, Hong Kong has experienced a fresh surge in cases. It could be that the dreaded “fourth wave” has begun.
In recent weeks, life in the city has returned to something approaching normality. Most workers are back in their offices and the MTR is packed at peak times. A relaxation of social-distancing measures last month has drawn customers back to restaurants and bars.
The travel bubble with Singapore is the first cautious step towards tackling that final frontier – foreign travel. The Lion City would not normally be top of the holiday hit list for Hongkongers, who tend to regard it as boring and would prefer to be sunning themselves in Phuket or shopping in Japan.
But the desperation to have a break after nearly a year of confinement in our crowded city will, no doubt, make Singapore a more appealing destination. New attractions there include underwater dining and lifelike dinosaurs.