The announcement of the roll-out of China’s international vaccine health certificate, also known as a vaccine passport, has offered a much-needed boost to the local tourism industry. However, its stimulating effects may take time to surface, the tourism expert said.
On March 7, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during the Two Sessions, the annual parliamentary meeting in China, that the country is rolling out a vaccine passport, with the intention of fostering global economic recovery and resuming international travel cautiously and gradually during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A dedicated WeChat mini program for Chinese citizens to register for a health certificate was launched the next day, March 8. It is a platform used to display a holder’s Covid-19 test results, vaccination stats and serum IgG antibody test results. The health passport comes with an encrypted QR code for governments to access the holder’s information and can be accessed in both digital and paper formats.
Following the launch, director of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said in a media briefing that the “vaccine passport” is projected to be a rapidly growing trend implmented by other countries and regions to enable safe international tourism activity.
When asked whether Macau would roll out relevant measures to align with China’s vaccine passport, Fernandes said she still has to communicate the matter with the Health Bureau.
Considering that Macau has just commenced the vaccination scheme, Fernandes believes that it may take some more time before a relevant policy can be introduced.
According to a report by news outlet exmoo published yesterday, Andy Wu, Chairman of Travel Industry Council of Macau, stated that the introduction of China’s vaccine passport will be a boon for Macau’s tourism industry. However, the city may reach a certain vaccination rate no earlier than the third or fourth quarter of 2021, he said.
Wu projects that once the vaccine passport scheme is enacted to facilitate travel between Macau and China, it will offer extra reassurance for mainland holidaymakers to visit Macau. The vaccine passport may also provide favorable conditions to extend the validity period of the nucleic acid test, possibly resulting in a longer length of stay among mainland visitors.
As of now, China is the world’s first country to issue a national vaccine passport. Some other countries such as Denmark and Sweden are also developing their own health passports.
Meanwhile, Singapore International Airlines was the first to trial a digital health passport app developed by the International Air Travel Association (IATA), the global airline industry body. The app is designed to display a traveler’s Covid-19 test result and vaccination status for seamless travel during the pandemic.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier advised against the use of vaccine passports for international travel due to “practical and ethical considerations.”
“Vaccination is just not available enough around the world and is not available certainly on an equitable basis,” WHO Health Emergencies chief Michael Ryan said at a press briefing on March 8.
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