Japan throws open its doors to tourists

It has been a long wait, but Japan is finally ready to open its doors to visitors.

Japanese officials said this week that most independent tourists will once be allowed to visit without restrictions from October 11.

All eligible travellers will be able to travel throughout Japan with traveller caps and visa requirements imposed during the Covid period to be eliminated. This ends more than two years of closed borders.

Visitors will no longer need to book all flights and accommodation through a travel agent.

To be allowed entry, visitors will still need to prove their triple vaccination status and submit a negative Covid test result to enter, the BBC reported.

Which means you can once again dress up like I did (above) and pretend to be Japanese - probably to the bemusement of the locals.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the announcement was an historic one for Japan, which has always counted on the flow of people across its borders as a key ingredient for economic success.

“We are a nation that has flourished through the free flow of people, goods and capital," he said. ". Covid-19 interrupted all of these benefits but from October 11 Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the United States.” he said.

Japan has allowed overseas visitors since June, but they had to be part of group tours.

Fiji readies to open its doors to tourists

Fiji plans to reopen its borders to international tourists by November, aiming to rebuild a pandemic-devastated economy. 

"Our goal is to free our country - and our economy - from the rut of the pandemic," Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in a statement.

Once 80% of Fiji's eligible population has been vaccinated, it will offer quarantine-free travel to visitors from a "green list" of locations.

Of Fiji's eligible population, 66% is currently fully vaccinated and Bainimarama predicts the country's target will be met by November 1, the Agence France Presse news agency reported. 

Fiji's current green list includes Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Korea, Singapore and parts of the United States.

Visitors would need to be fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19 prior to their departure en route to Fiji.

Once in Fiji, they would stay in designated zones where all contacts, from hospitality staff to tour operators, would be fully vaccinated.

Reviving tourism, which government figures estimate accounts for 40% of Fiji's economy, is seen as crucial to containing rising poverty in the  islands nation of under one million people.

Fiji was free of community transmission for a year before a Delta outbreak emerged in April.

The bulk of Fiji's tourists come from Australia and New Zealand, from where foreign travel is currently banned, and travellers from both countries would currently face a two-week quarantine at their own expense upon returning home.

# Image: Likuliku Resort, Fiji