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For the first time since suddenly shutting its borders in March 2020, New Zealand is fully reopening to visitors from all over the world starting from 11:59PM of 31 July 2022. Also known as the Land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand started a phased border reopening in February 2022, allowing fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and residents to come home from Australia, followed in March 2022 by New Zealand citizens and residents from the rest of the world. Afterwards, travelers from specific categories were allowed in in phases: fully vaccinated skilled workers (mid-March), fully vaccinated temporary work and student visa holders (mid-April), and visitors from visa-waiver countries and those from other countries with a valid visitor visa (May 2022), and fully vaccinated Accredite...

Thailand has scrapped nearly all entry restrictions beginning July 1, 2022. That means travelers will no longer be required to register online and submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination, medical insurance and other documents before departure. Entry requirements for both Thais and foreign nationals have been simplified for both the vaccinated and non-vaccinated. The only pre-departure requirement is proof of either a certificate of vaccination or a pre-arrival negative RT-PCR or professional ATK test result. Photo by Frida Aguilar Estrada on Unsplash According to a June 24, 2022 news release by the TAT, the following entry rules apply beginning July 1, 2022: Pre-arrival requirements Vaccinated travellers must have the following documents for entering Thailand: A valid pa...

Starting August 1, 2022, all travelers to France will no longer need to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or recovery, or a negative RT-PCR/antigen test result. In short, travelers to France will no longer be required to present any forms or documentation relating to COVID-19 restrictions. An English translation of a statement from the French Ministry of the Interior and Overseas follows: Since the beginning of the crisis, the border health control system has made it possible to protect our health system and to delay the arrival on national territory of variants with worrying characteristics.This system, which mobilized up to 6,000 members of civil security each week to carry out the tests, border guards to check the health documents of travelers and internal security forces to ...

Some relief in China's airtight zero-COVID policy may come soon. Speaking at the World Economic Forum on July 19, 2022, the Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, promised to relax curbs on international travel in an “orderly” way, which includes facilitating the return of foreign students to China to continue their studies. Figures from the Ministry of Education show that as of 2018 around 500,000 foreign students are enrolled in China's universities. China's zero-COVID approach to stamping out new cases has been characterized by mass testing and surveillance, citywide lockdowns, mandatory quarantine, business shutdowns, and border closures. A recent outbreak in Shanghai led to the lockdown of the city of 25 million residents for two months, as experts around the world questioned the sustai...

Cruise ship companies are rushing to resume operations as the Federal government's two-year ban on them expires on Sunday, with some of the biggest names in the business setting sail for Queensland. The P&O Pacific Explorer will arrive in Brisbane on June 2 thanks to a commitment from Carnival, and Royal Caribbean has expressed interest in returning with plans to park its enormous Quantum of the Seas in Queensland for an entire season from November 1 to April of the following year. Before the pandemic, the cruise industry contributed $1 billion to the Queensland economy. However, the coronavirus halted the industry's growth, leaving Brisbane's brand-new $177 million international cruise ship terminal to sit vacant for the past two years. However, with industry heavyweights me...