SINGAPORE: The travel hotspots of Asia are eager to get visitors back, along with the dollars, euros, pounds and yuan they used to spend.

       But restrictions on the ground as well as back home mean those tourists will be slow to arrive. Thailand, which led Asia with a pilot programme for travel to Phuket, just reopened its doors to more than 60 countries.

       Indonesia is welcoming some travellers back to Bali and the Riau Islands, while Malaysia will reopen the sugar sand beaches of Langkawi to quarantine-free travel starting in mid-November.

       Australia, which effectively locked its own citizens out of coming home for months, is allowing some inbound travel.

       Even Singapore, which is still hanging on to all manner of domestic regulations despite its 84% vaccination rate, has started easing on departures and arrivals.

       Quarantine-free travel from the city-state is now possible to the United States, Canada, and several countries in Western Europe, and that will expand to Australia, Switzerland and South Korea later this month.

       But even as those restrictions fall, there are still enough local public health rules and other travel complications that it may take more than open borders to get business and leisure travellers back.

       Thailand only allows entrance to certain provinces on arrival, though they’re generally the ones tourists flocked to in pre-pandemic times.

       Australia’s easing doesn’t cover the whole country, and it’s only for citizens and permanent residents, so no tourists for now.

       In Singapore, “quarantine free” still means isolating as long as 24 hours until mandatory on-arrival Covid-19 test results come in.

       Asia-Pacific destinations still restrict tourist travel far more than most cities in Europe or the Americas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. — Bloomberg