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Destinations are starting to push for testing
More and more destinations are introducing testing as an entry requirement. In the case of Hong Kong and Iceland, the test happens when you land.
In the case of Dubai and the Maldives, the requirement is for the test to be done before travel (TBT). The Canary Islands are also advocating TBT on a global scale.
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Canary Islands - Arguing for TBT (“Test Before Travel”)
The Canary Islands has been one of the innovators when it comes to preparing for tourism during the pandemic and beyond.
After attending a webinar hosted by TravelMedia with Cristina Del Río Fresen, Leader of the Islands’ Global Tourism Safety Lab, we followed up with a number of questions.
This comes as the media reported the Islands’ regional President Ángel Víctor Torres, talking about a mouthwash style test, to be administered on arrival.
According to Cristina del Río Fresen:
Cristina del Río Fresen told us that though the Spanish Government had as yet not agreed to tests as an entry requirement, the regional Government had indeed contacted a number of possible test providers in Europe, Israel and Japan.
The front runner may well be one from Japan, which is a saliva PCR test that would cost around €45 and take half an hour for the results to come back.
The regional authorities are also looking at providing incentives, such as vouchers to be spent on the islands, to offset any testing costs.
Here Cristina del Río Fresen says that this could be ready in the Autumn, as the Government is currently evaluating it:
That in itself is an interesting idea, and could be one way in which airlines and destinations work together to make any extra travel costs (in the form of TBT) an easier sell for tourists - get travel vouchers to the value of your test. That money goes back to local businesses, so everyone benefits.
Cristina del Río Fresen told us that it’s of course important that any ‘Test Before Travel’ is properly validated, including the use of a digital health passport underpinned by blockchain technology.
The Islands are already running a pilot project with the UN World Tourism Organisation involving the HI+ Card app, which is developed by a local Canarian company.
A diagram on the HI+ Card website shows the passenger scanning his or her phone at various stages of a flight from check-in to arrival, and passing different COVID-19 checks. The HI+ Card uses blockchain and is GDPR compliant.
Finally we asked Cristina del Río Fresen, what difference it would make if an airline were to commit to introducing TBT for all passengers. She replied that initially the industry had not been receptive due to the cost, but recently opinions had started to change: “Airlines are afraid of losing some clients because of the price of the test, but it is just the opposite. We developed an international poll (31.600 respondents) and 75% confirmed they prefer to travel being tested in advance. The safety perception grows...they could increase their routes and their clients.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong All arriving passengers (and now flight crew) are tested on arrival. For passengers the procedure is to go to a neighbouring exhibition centre, take a test and wait for up to eight hours for the results to come back.
Journalist Laurel Chor gave an excellent description of what the procedure is like in this twitter thread.
Dubai
Dubai welcomed its first tourists on July 8th, on a Flydubai flight from Kiev. Alongside the efforts by its home airline, Emirates (which we talked about earlier in this issue), Dubai is running a campaign to make tourists feel reassured called “Ready When You Are.”
At the same time, Dubai has introduced entry requirements, which include testing.
Arriving passengers need to produce a test certificate (proving they don’t have the virus) taken 96 hours before departure, or they will be tested on arrival. They need to have health insurance, and to download the official contact tracing app.
Maldives
The Maldives similarly require you to have a test done before boarding a flight to the island. In addition, tourists need to show a booking at a resort which has a “safe tourism license.”
To get such a license (at a cost of $50,000), a resort needs to set aside 10% of rooms for quarantine, to have a doctor and nurse on site, to have appropriate staff training and to have a crisis plan in case of an outbreak.
The Maldives is not a budget destination, and no doubt resorts will pass the cost onto visitors. However, most will probably be happy that the islands are being so stringent. After all, it works for incoming tourists (who don’t want to be infected), as well as for locals and staff who work within the industry.
Hawaii
Being cut off from the Continental United States, Hawaii has of course been keen to keep its Coronavirus rate under control - and lower than mainland US States. At the same time, the Hawaiian islands are reliant on tourism.
Plans are to reopen the islands on 1 August to anyone who has a test certificate, issued 72 hours before departure.
There is just one problem - according to Hawaii News Now, concerns have been raised about availability of tests on the mainland, as well as the spike in Coronavirus cases.
Meanwhile, testing capacity on the islands itself has been cut in half due to fewer chemicals to administer the tests being sent to Hawaii. This is again directly linked to the increase in Coronavirus cases on the US mainland.
Iceland
Iceland introduced mandatory testing on arrival on 15 June, and for two weeks the Icelandic Government picked up the cost. Anyone arriving would go to their hotel and wait for the result to come through. However, testing capacity was initially limited to 500 a day.
Capacity has now increased to 2,000 a day and the cost is met by the passenger. If you book in advance, it is 9,000 ISK ($63).
What about airports?
A number of airports worldwide have set up Coronavirus test centres.
These include:
Bangkok Airport
Certain groups of people can now fly to Bangkok, and take advantage of a testing facility on arrival. According to Reuters the test takes 90 minutes and costs just under $100.
Vienna Airport
VIE was one of the first to introduce a testing facility for arriving passengers. For a cost of €190, you can have a PCR test done with the results known “within a period of about three to six hours.”
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport operator FRAPORT is working with Lufthansa and German biotech firm Centogene in running a test centre at FRA.
A standard test costs €59 and can take six hours, while an express test costs €139 and can be processed in three hours or less.
Centogene does say it can process up to 5,000 tests a day and has set up a mobile test truck in the airport grounds, meaning the results don’t have to be sent off to an external lab.
Centogene produced a promotional video about the test centre, which among other things features Fritz Keller, President of the German Football Federation, who says on the video that testing is the only way, until we’ve found a vaccine, to have some kind of normality in life.
A testing centre has also been opened at Munich Airport, though it seems to be more modest in scale than Frankfurt’s efforts.
