Japan will welcome back all international tourists from mid-October. Photo Credit: Unsplash/Naitian Tony Wang
Travel to Northeast Asia will soon be much easier as Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong have announced lifting of curbs.
Japan is lifting the ban on individual travellers and dropping daily
limits on the number of inbound international visitors to the country.
It will also remove visa requirements for visitors from countries which were exempted before the pandemic.
The changes will take affect from 11 October 2022.
After keeping out travellers for almost two years, in June the
Japanese government increased inbound traveller caps from 10,000 to
20,000 per day and abolished some proof of vaccination requirements, if
visitors were part of a supervised group tour.
Those restrictions were further eased in September and now – with the
yen at its weakest in 24 years and the country badly needing the
economic stimulus of foreign tourists – the government has acted to lure
international visitors back to its hotel, shops and restaurants.
Japan had less than 250,000 foreign visitors in 2021, well below a record 31.9 million in 2019.
Taiwan, meanwhile, aims to end its mandatory Covid-19 quarantine for
arrivals from 13 October, a further step towards full reopening after
cutting the number of days required in isolation for arrivals to three
from seven previously in June.
Hong Kong, in its most substantial move, will scrap hotel quarantine
for inbound travellers. However, arrivals still need to complete a PCR
upon arrival and are travellers are banned from entering bars and
restaurants in the first three days of their arrival in the city.
In Asia, currently only mainland China and North Korea still have Covid-19 entry restrictions in place.