Singapore’s travel and tourism industry suffered a double shock on Tuesday as the World Economic Forum (WEF) cancelled its planned August meeting there and once again its travel bubble with Hong Kong was pushed back.
The travel bubble, which would have allowed travelers to skip quarantine, had been planned to begin on May 26. Singapore’s transport ministry said a recent increase in COVID cases will not allow it to meet the criteria to start the travel bubble.
The Hong Kong government said further updates will be announced on or before June 13.
After a spike in cases, Singapore initiated stricter measures last weekend, banning all dine-in at food and beverage establishments, as well as limiting public social gatherings to two people.
As for the WEF, the organization said in a statement, “Regretfully, the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants combine to make it impossible to realize a global meeting with business, government and civil society leaders from all over the world at the scale which was planned.”
The event, already delayed twice, had been moved to Singapore from its usual location of Davos, Switzerland. WEF said that the meeting will instead take place in the first half of 2022, with a final location and date to be determined later this year.