Southeast Asia reopening borders and living with Covid-19

Southeast Asia has been implementing incremental measures to reopen its borders and restart international tourism. Several governments are aiming to attract higher revenue-generating international tourism, although domestic tourism has helped in cushioning pressure for local jobs and businesses in tourist destinations to an extent. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s estimated that travel and tourism contributed to Southeast Asia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for about $380 million in 2019 or 12% and over 42 million jobs or over 13%. In 2019, Cambodia and the Philippines received largest contribution of over 26% and 25% of GDP respectively from travel and tourism, however, in absolute terms Thailand received $107 billion, the Philippines $90.9, Indonesia $63.6 billion, and Malaysia and Singapore over $40 billion. According to ADB Southeast Asia Development Solutions, the…