{"id":18865,"date":"2021-06-10T16:37:03","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T16:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18865"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:41:09","slug":"south-korea-in-talks-on-travel-bubble-with-singapore-and-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/south-korea-in-talks-on-travel-bubble-with-singapore-and-taiwan","title":{"rendered":"South Korea in talks on travel bubble with Singapore and Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Korea could announce a travel bubble with Singapore and Taiwan from July to help the tourism sector start to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea.-\u00a0<strong>The South Korean government<\/strong>\u00a0is in talks with Singaporean and Taiwanese authorities about a potential<strong> travel bubble from July.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the South Korean Transport Ministry,\u00a0<strong>the travel bubble will be open only to those who have been fully vaccinated<\/strong>\u00a0against Covid-19. Local media reports that so far <strong>only 4.5 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially, <strong>travellers will be required to show negative Covid-19 test results<\/strong>\u00a0three days before departure and test again upon arrival at their destination. Tourists will also have to follow an itinerary rather than roaming freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although&nbsp;<strong>discussions have only just begun<\/strong>, the travel bubble could include other territories such as&nbsp;<strong>Guam, Saipan and Thailand<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The news was well received by the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tourism-in-south-korea-down-99-since-april-2020\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tourism and gaming sectors<\/a>&nbsp;as an average of just<strong>&nbsp;9,722 tourists per month have visited South Korea<\/strong>&nbsp;since last April, a 99 per cent decline compared to the<strong>&nbsp;1.33m visitors in January 2020<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea\u2019s foreigner-only&nbsp;<strong>casino operators have been deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong>&nbsp;and the lack of tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/jeju-casino-sales-down-63-6-in-2020\">casinos on Jeju island<\/a>\u00a0saw\u00a0<strong>sales decline by 63.6 per cent year-on-year<\/strong>\u00a02020 to\u00a0<strong>KRW69.30bn (US$61.5m)<\/strong>.\u00a0<strong>That compares to sales of KRW190.0bn (US$168.7m)<\/strong>\u00a0in 2019, before the global Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only<strong>&nbsp;four Jeju casinos out of a total of 16 foreigner-only venues remained operational through most of 2020<\/strong>: Paradise Co\u2019s Paradise Casino Jeju Grand, Landing Casino at Jeju Shinhwa World, Casino Lotte Tour at Lotte Hotel Jeju and Gongzi Jeju.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble to be reviewed in July<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities in Singapore and Hong Kong will <strong>analyse the situation <\/strong>next month before announcing a new launch date for a proposed\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/singapore-hong-kong-travel-bubble-delayed-until-june-at-earliest\">travel bubble<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble was to begin on May 26 but was delayed after\u00a0<strong>Singapore registered new cases of Covid-19<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in recent days <strong>the number of Covid-19 cases in Singapore has declined<\/strong>, while the situation in Hong Kong remains stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Ministry of Transport\u00a0<\/strong>said: &#8220;Both sides would<strong>\u00a0review the situation in early July<\/strong>, before deciding on the target launch dates of the air travel bubble flights.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gan Kim Yong, trade and industry minister, added: &#8220;<strong>Once we have a very high vaccination rate<\/strong>, then it opens up a lot more possibilities and offers greater flexibility, even in international travelling.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea could announce a travel bubble with Singapore and Taiwan from July to help the tourism sector start to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"South Korea is in discussions with Singapore and Taiwan to establish a travel bubble from July, primarily for vaccinated individuals, aiming to revitalize its tourism and gaming sectors. This initiative is critical for foreigner-only casino operators, which experienced a 63.6% decline in sales on Jeju island in 2020 due to the severe reduction in international visitors. The proposed travel corridors, potentially expanding to Guam, Saipan, and Thailand, signal a crucial step towards market recovery and GGR uplift for the region's integrated resorts.","focusai_entities":"South Korean Transport Ministry, Paradise Co, Landing Casino, Casino Lotte Tour, Gongzi Jeju, Gan Kim Yong","focusai_location":"South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Guam, Saipan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Jeju","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.78), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Projected GGR Uplift?","query":"What is the projected GGR uplift for South Korean foreigner-only casinos if the travel bubble expands to all proposed territories, and what is the estimated timeline for reaching pre-pandemic revenue levels?"},{"label":"Vaccination Rate Impact?","query":"How will the vaccination rate in South Korea and partner countries impact the timeline and scope of further travel bubble expansions, and what are the associated risks to sustained gaming revenue recovery?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[23907],"class_list":["post-18865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18865"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18896,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions\/18896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}