Travel Support

28/06/2022

Four US cities ready to welcome back travellers safely!

With 8 November seeing the US reopen to many fully vaccinated travellers, cities across the country are working on a slew of exciting, new initiatives to welcome them back.

American skies are about to become a lot friendlier to fully vaccinated travellers. On 8 November, the United States will implement a new air travel policy that removes the ban on international travel from 33 countries (including the EU, UK and India) and changes the country-by-country approach in favour of a requirement for all fliers to be fully vaccinated. This marks the first time in 18 months that vaccinated visitors from many countries have been able to travel to the US.

Bookings are already booming, with international airfare from the UK to the US up 108% following the announcement, according to travel marketplace Travelport. With international tourism to the US down 75% since 2019, cities across the country are just as eagerly awaiting the return of international visitors, and many have made substantial strides in safety and sustainability since the start of the pandemic, including adapting new restaurant setups and safer outdoor and indoor activities.

We've picked four US cities that are eager to welcome back travellers safely, where there's high vaccination rates among the local population and a slew of exciting, new initiatives unveiled since international visitors last touched down.

28/06/2022

Malta: The island welcoming digital nomads

Boasting one of the world's highest vaccination rates, Malta is now welcoming back visitors safely with cash incentives and a recently launched Nomad Residence Permit.

The Mediterranean island-nation of Malta may be small but its response to the pandemic has been mighty. Once enforcing some of the strictest restrictions in Europe, the country has finally been able to open its borders and welcome back visitors safely, boasting one of the world's highest vaccination rates.

Nearly 81% of all Malta residents are fully vaccinated. In fact, Malta and Portugal are the only two nations in Europe that have reached a more than 80% vaccination rate across their total population (including teenagers age 12 to 17, who have been eligible to get the vaccine since summer 2021), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This make them two of the only places likely to avoid a winter resurgence says the ECDC director, and among the safest places to travel in 2021. Visitors to Malta must be vaccinated themselves if they want to skip a 14-day quarantine.

28/06/2022

The Caribbean's crowds-free 'Irish' isle!

The British overseas territory of Montserrat is joining the trend of island states pushing to attract remote workers to come and stay a while.

Compared with the rest of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has given Montserrat a pass. A British overseas territory, the volcanic eastern Caribbean island has suffered negligible rates of Covid, with fewer than 200 infections and just two deaths among its population of 5,000 people, known as Montserratians.

Montserrat's government now wants to turn its containment success into a tourist draw through a year-long digital nomad visa. After a lockdown in 2021, its tourism-dependent economy is joining the trend of island states pushing to attract remote workers to come and stay a while as Covid persists elsewhere.

Launched in April 2021, the programme, called the Montserrat Remote Worker Stamp, offers a "best of both worlds" approach that balances nature and connectivity, said Rosetta West-Gerald, Montserrat's new director of tourism.

Longer-term, she said, the island hopes the scheme will foster extended relationships – and a deeper economic impact.

"Beyond 2022, it is our hope that some of the remote workers will fall in love with the island and be converted into homeowners or residential visitors," West-Gerald said.

28/06/2022

The world's most agile countries!

With international travel opening up again, travellers may find more security visiting countries with a strong track record of adjusting their policies appropriately and swiftly.

An ongoing pandemic, global conflict and general uncertainty have put a spotlight on every country's need to be more agile and adaptable in recent years. By being able to implement flexible policies and solutions based on new information, governments can more effectively serve citizens and travellers in a rapidly changing world.

To capture this ability to adapt and respond to obstacles, US News & World Report introduced the new Agility index this year as part of their annual best countries rankings, creating a list of the top nations ranked by their ability to be adaptable, dynamic, modern, progressive or responsive.

These factors are more important than ever to travellers, many who are starting to travel internationally again for the first time in two years. As seen by the stream of new Covid-19 variants, conditions on the ground can shift rapidly and travellers may find more security visiting those countries with a strong track record of adjusting their policies appropriately and swiftly.

We spoke to residents and policy experts in some of the most highly ranked countries to find out what makes for an agile country and what travellers should expect when touching down.

28/06/2022

Vietnam's 107-year-old 'pudding master'!

Thiểu Ngô has been serving up a beloved black sesame pudding on the streets of Hoi An for more than half a century. Now his family are continuing his legacy.

Every morning, rain or shine, An Ngô or one of her two sisters-in-law rises at 03:00 to begin preparing one of Hoi An's most beloved snacks. She walks for 10 minutes from the family home, wheeling a steel cart of supplies to the family's street-side stall just outside Old Town. Here, she settles on a red plastic stool, lights the fire and waits for the vat full of an inky, charcoal-coloured mixture to come to temperature.

Before long, a regular stream of locals appears, waiting for their daily fix. Her hand disappears under the steam and quickly emerges with a heaping portion of xí mà. As a chaotic symphony of wildly honking motorbikes zooms by, she remains laser-focused, expertly siphoning the black paste into a small plastic bag, tying it with an elastic band and handing it to the customer, then spends the morning doing it over and over again.

The ancient Vietnamese city of Hoi An has a number of famous dishes that attract domestic and foreign tourists, such as the ubiquitous noodle-and-pork dish cao lầu or bánh mì from Bánh Mì Phượng (the perennially packed go-to thanks to Anthony Bourdain's 2009 episode of No Reservations). But the black sesame pudding xí mà is a favourite of the residents who live here – and the Ngô family's version is considered by many to be the best in the city.

Xí mà is a morning snack made of pulverised sesame seeds blended with sweet potato starch and kudzu root starch (a local vine), extracted centella juice (a popular health plant in Vietnam) and sargasso juice (a brown type of seaweed) along with Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs and water. Eaten warm with a spoon, it's slightly sweet with a silky texture and a gentle, nutty sweetness. While some refer to it as black sesame soup, its texture is thicker, more pudding-like.

28/06/2022