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THE TERM travel bubble has been widely referred to in recent months as one of the schemes used for cross-country travel. However, recently the term Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) has also emerged with a scheme that at first glance is similar to a travel bubble.
For example, tourists or migrants from Indonesia had previously planned to be able to visit Singapore without the need for quarantine because they were through the VTL route. Indonesia is also currently exploring VTL cooperation with India which will soon sign a memorandum of understanding. Then, what is the difference between a travel bubble and a VTL?
Difference between travel bubble and VTL
According to the Deputy for Marketing of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Nia Niscaya explained the difference. In short, VTL is a development scheme of the travel bubble.
“Travel bubble was an initial concept before VTL. But the point is that the bubble goes from one point of origin to one point in the destination so that the movement of people is more controlled. VTL is more advanced, Vaccinated Travel Lane,” he said during the 2021 End of Year Press Conference in Sapta Pesona Building, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Jakarta recently.
In a travel bubble, two or more countries will agree on a bubble or travel corridor to control the spread of the corona virus.
Meanwhile, in the VTL scheme, tourists who enter a cooperating country are also required to have received a full vaccination or a complete dose. In addition, the tracking and vaccination systems of cooperating countries will be more integrated.
“If the travel bubble hasn’t thought of a tracing system, VTL is more advanced. A tracing system is also being built, there is an API-Application Programming Interface. So, our system and him (a cooperating country) are married.”
Nia explained that Indonesia had also discussed the potential for VTL cooperation with several other countries, for example with Malaysia. However, the rules regarding the quarantine period are one of the challenges in the VTL discussion.
“The challenge is about quarantine. In the past, it was still a five, three-day quarantine. When it happened eight, 10, 14 days, I said just hold on,” Nia underlined.
Likewise, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno said that the VTL scheme would still be studied, especially considering the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 both in Indonesia and in other countries.
For the time being, the bubble system has been implemented, such as at the opening of the G20 Presidency in early December. According to him, the bubble system has proven to be effective because none of the participants contracted the corona virus.
“At the G20, both in Bali and Jakarta, until the end no one was infected with the corona virus. Because COVID-19 keeps changing, we are temporarily putting VTL on the sidelines. We will expand the bubble concept because future events really need a solution,” Sandiaga concluded. [traveltext.id/special photo]
