Singapore opening to vaccinated travellers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India and more

Fully jabbed tourists from the UAE will be able to travel to the Lion City from December 6

Singapore is opening up to more vaccinated travellers, including from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India. Bloomberg

Singapore will welcome tourists from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Qatar and Indonesia in the coming weeks.

The island nation is further relaxing its strict Covid-19 travel regulations by extending its vaccinated travel lane scheme to these five countries.

Tourists from India and Indonesia can fly to the Lion City from November 29, while immunised travellers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar can visit Singapore from December 6.

Singapore’s vaccinated travel lane scheme allows fully immunised visitors to apply to visit the Asian hub for tourism purposes.

Anyone visiting Singapore under the scheme no longer needs to take a day three and day seven PCR test or undergo quarantine.

Instead, travellers need a negative result from a test taken within two days of departure, and will undergo an on-arrival test. Travellers must also self-monitor for symptoms after landing in Singapore.

To qualify to travel, tourists must have received a full dose of an accepted vaccine. These are Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Covishield, Janssen, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

In October, Singapore eased restrictions for tourists coming from the UK, the US, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Vaccinated travellers from South Korea can visit the country from Monday, November 15, while those from Malaysia, Finland and Sweden are welcome from Monday, November 29.

Travellers wishing to visit Singapore as tourists must apply for either short-term or long-term visitor passes at least seven days before they are due to travel.

Applications for those booking a trip from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar will open on Monday, November 29. From India and Indonesia, applications are accepted from Monday, November 22.

Singapore is included on Abu Dhabi's green list, meaning there is no quarantine for vaccinated or unvaccinated travellers flying to the UAE capital.

Singapore Changi Airport, which was previously one of the busiest airports in the world, welcoming more than 68 million visitors in 2019, has remained underused throughout the pandemic.

In 2020, the world-renowned airport had only 11.8 million visitors pass through its terminals and, in May last year, airport authorities closed Terminal 2 for at least 18 months citing a lack of demand.