For ASEAN nations looking to re-open to international tourism **safely** a 14 day quarantine on arrival is essential. No nation in SEA has an average stay of over 10 days in 2015 (Thailand highest at 9.7 days). Is a fools errand & energy better spent buttressing domestic travel.

Eventually all will move to making tourists pay for quarantine, so that’s what, a $1.5k arrival tax? No thanks. Without the quarantine, 2nd, 3rd, 4th waves are inevitable, each time again putting community transmission at risk, and moving back to square one.

Vietnam, again, leading the way on this. Forget about inbound, retool to the domestic market—that’s all there is going to be for the next 12 months—assuming public health is valued. Get ahead of the curve today.

More likely nations will put the economy ahead of public health (as they mostly have historically) and in a month or so we’ll have Melbournes dotted right across the region.

And, if you successfully retool to the domestic market, thinking tour operators in particular here, when the foreigners eventually return, you bring them on stream too. This focus on getting foreigners back in is nuts.