S'pore-Germany vaccinated travel lane in demand

Over 1,000 people have travelled between the 2 countries since Sept 8

- Tilman Wortz

The bus stops in front of the city hall in Frankfurt, the final destination after an eight-day tour through Germany. Six tourists from Singapore alight and, once on the open square, most of them remove their masks. In Germany, masks are not compulsory in the open air, and there is no restriction on the size of a group, as long as social distancing – of 1.5m – is maintained.

Ms Novita Lam, a 27-year-old bank employee and Instagrammer from Singapore, nevertheless professes to feel safe. “In Germany, there are fewer people crowding the streets and squares than in Singapore,” she said.

She arrived in Germany just over a week ago with the first tour group from Singapore using the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme, “experiencing history” by visiting castles, palaces and mediaeval towns along the “Romantic Road” – a picturesque 350km route through the forests and mountains of the southern German provinces of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg.

At a store for the famous “cuckoo clocks” in the Black Forest, her group was the first from Asia since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Lam has travelled to Europe every year since 2016 but could not do so in 2020. After just over a week in Germany, she said: “The step towards normality feels reassuring.”

On the last day of her trip, she will be required to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, one of four as part of the VTL. The remaining three tests will be conducted in Singapore.