Aruna Gaitonde
Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bureau, Mumbai 
While many destinations are primarily focusing on domestic tourism in the short term, Australia and New Zealand are seriously considering a ‘trans-Tasman bubble’ for the resumption of normal travel, tourism, and trade between them.
Thanks as much to their isolation and low population densities as their policies, both island nations have been able to ‘flatten the curve’ of SARS-CoV-2 contagion faster than most others. Both are very important travel & tourism source markets for each other, particularly the more populous Australia for destination New Zealand. And both offer plenty of wide-open spaces in which to self-isolate and explore.
In Hong Kong, where there is little space, the first phase of tourism recovery will be to ‘ within their city, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board Executive Director Dane Cheng.
HKTB Chair YK Pang reckons domestic travel will be the major preference shortly after the pandemic. Outbound travel will resume soon after. As for source markets, Pang expects Chinese mainland holiday-makers to become more price-conscious and pursue value-for-money with more emphasis on health and nature. In Japan, Korea and Taiwan, the young and middle-aged segments will be the most eager to travel.
