Vaccine Tourism Takes Off As Indian Variant Spreads Through Asia

Earlier this year, it was the wealthy who traveled abroad to receive a Covid vaccine. Now, as Covid cases rise across Asia, vaccine tourism for the masses is becoming big business.

Travel agencies in countries where the number of Covid cases are rising faster than vaccine rates have received hundreds of inquiries for trips to receive vaccines abroad.

For between 75,000 baht and 200,000 baht ($2,400 and $6,400) per person, Thailand-based Unithai Trip is offering a "vaccine tour" to the U.S. where tourists can receive either a Johnson & Johnson jab or two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

My Journey Travel, another Thailand travel agency, told Reuters it received hundreds of calls in the three days since advertising a similar package to the U.S.

Other travel companies are offering vaccine tours to Serbia and Russia where tourists can receive the Sputnik V jab.

Demand for vaccines in Thailand is rocketing alongside the number of Covid cases in the country.

In the last week the daily number of Covid cases in Thailand has been in the four figures, far eclipsing anything the country has witnessed throughout the pandemic so far.

Thailand's government, worried that the uptick of Covid cases is being driven by the Indian variant, has started a mass testing program in Bangkok where infection rates are at their highest.

However, as of 5 May, just 1.5 million doses of China's Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered in the country of 70 million people.

There is now such a demand for vaccine tours that Thailand's tourism ministry has warned customers to examine vaccination packages very carefully. Not all countries are so welcoming to vaccine tourists.

After a Turkish company called Exp-ert started offering vaccine trips to Serbia, the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, stated that foreigners without a residence permit were not eligible and should not travel to the country.

Exp-ert now says it is offering vaccine tours to Kiev in Ukraine instead.

It is a similar situation in the UAE, where many from around the world, and Asia especially, have traveled in the hope of receiving a vaccine. But the UAE government has said that only those with a residence permit can receive Covid vaccines.

Vaccine Tourists Flock To U.S.

Vaccination centers in the U.S. are welcoming vaccine tourists from abroad, however. In April, thousands of wealthy Mexicans traveled north to receive Covid jabs as part of trips organized by local travel firms. They have since been joined by Canadians heading south to benefit from the U.S. vaccine oversupply.

New York may soon start actively welcoming tourists with free vaccines in iconic locations according to its mayor, Bill de Blasio. "Come here, it’s safe, it’s a great place to be and we’re going to take care of you,” De Blasio said at a press conference on Thursday 6 May.

The Maldives has already announced a similar offering. Once the island nation has vaccinated all residents it will start rolling out its "3V" tourism program with the tagline, "visit, vaccinate and vacation."

Even Zimbabwe has started selling its vaccines to tourists, despite only vaccinating less than 5% of its population. “Zimbabweans will get the vaccine for free, but for foreigners who come here, they will receive the vaccine at a cost," President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said. One tourist told Times Live he paid $70 for two shots.

Pakistan was one of the first countries to offer Covid vaccines on the private healthcare market. And, as the country witnesses a sudden surge in Covid cases, worryingly similar to its southern neighbor, India, many wealthier Pakistanis are paying for private vaccines at clinics that boast hotel-like facilities.

Vaccine tourists are facing considerable hostility, however. Countries such as Ukraine, Zimbabwe, and Pakistan are only in the early stages of their vaccination programs in targeting priority groups. Much of their vaccine supply is bolstered by COVAX, an initiative whereby richer countries donate vaccines to poorer ones.

With 80% of the 1.2 billion vaccine doses administered by 1 May hogged by richer countries, many poorer ones are finding they don't have sufficient vaccines even for the elderly or frontline workers. They can therefore ill-afford to doll out vaccines to wealthy foreigners.

Even in the U.S., where the vaccine program is one of the world's most successful, vaccine tourism faces controversy. Vaccine tourists to the U.S. are only required to pay for the trip, not the actual jab, leaving U.S. taxpayers to pick up the bill.

But vaccine tourists argue it is better to have more vaccinated people than fewer. "Why shouldn't I protect myself and my family," says one wealthy Mexican tourist who preferred not to be named.

He has just returned to the U.S., where he and his family received Pfizer vaccines. "I'm actually saving my country money by going abroad."